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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026927776
THE STORY OF AHIKAR
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ponvon: FETTER LANE, £.C.
C, F. CLAY, Manacer
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Tokuo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
All rights reserved
THE STORY OF AHIKAR
FROM THE
ARAMAIC, SYRIAC, ARABIC, ARMENIAN,
ETHIOPIC, OLD TURKISH, GREEK
AND SLAVONIC VERSIONS
BY
F. C. CONYBEARE, J. RENDEL HARRIS,
AND
AGNES SMITH LEWIS
SECOND EDITION
ENLARGED AND CORRECTED
Cambridge :
at the University Press
\/ ere
1913 4 1: y
A 400149
Cambringe:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
PREFACE
HE story which is here rescued from the Arabian Nights and,
with some diffidence, restored to the Biblical Apocrypha,
occurs in such various forms and in so many languages that there
are few scholars who could edit it single-handed, and I suspect
that not many critics will see their way at once through the
diverse transmission of the legend to its primitive verity.
In the present edition J have had the assistance of my friends
Mrs Lewis and Mr Conybeare in dealing with the linguistic
problems; and I am also much indebted to my friend Mr Kennett
for his kindness in reading and revising the Syriac sheets.
Without their aid, the attempt to edit Ahikar would have been
inadequate. As it 1s, I hope we have been able to clear up
some of the difficulties in the text, and to pave the way for its
further criticism. The part taken by each of the contributors is
indicated by the initials of their names.
J. RENDEL HARRIS
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
A ise first edition was nearly exhausted, when the story of
Ahikar was again brought into prominence by the discovery
of a series of papyrus fragments from the island of Elephantiné,
dating from the fifth century before Christ. A new edition of
the tale was therefore required. We had further material in the
discovery of an old Turkish or Tartar version, with which Mr
- Conybeare has enriched the present edition. We hope it will be
found in every way more correct as well as more complete than
the first.
J. RENDEL HARRIS
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
SLAVONIC TRANSLATION
ARMENIAN TRANSLATION
TRANSLATION OF OLD TurKisH TEXT
Sykgiac TRANSLATION
AETHIOPIC TRANSLATION . . , é
Arasic TRANSLATION
GREEK TEXT
ARAMAIC TRANSLATION
FRAGMENTS OF THE SAYINGS AND PARABLES OF AHIKAR
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
Oxtp TurkisH TExT .
ARMENIAN TEXT
Syriac Text.
ARABIC Text . ; ;
THE STORY OF AHIKAR AND HIS
NEPHEW NADAN
INTRODUCTION
(By J. RENDEL HARRIS)
CHAPTER I
ANTIQUITY OF THE LEGEND
THE story of Ahikar has been long known to readers of the
Arabian Nights, in the supplement to which it finds a place; but,
in common with many other tales which are so liberally heaped up
by Scheherezadé, or which have been attached to her collection, it
has escaped up to the present time from the close inspection of
criticism, into the focus of which 1t has been slowly drifting; but,
as we shall see when we consider the literature that has been
quietly accumulating around it during the last few years, there
has been an increasing perception that we had in this pretty
romance something more and something earlier than a con-
ventional Arab tale of the way in which Ingratitude meets its
due, and that the nucleus of the tale, at all events, was Biblical or
semi-Biblical in character, however wide the gulf might at first
seem between the Hebrew and the Arabic literatures. And it
is this perception of the imperfectly recognised debt which one
branch of Semitic literature owes to another, and the rectification
of ideas involved in the payment of the debt, that furnishes the
main motive of the present tract.
Vill INTRODUCTION
But, before plunging into readings and recensions, into the
criticism of texts and the discrimination of sources, let us briefly
sketch the main features of the story itself.
Ahikar, or, as he is called in Arabic, Haykar, was the vizier of
Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and was famous amongst men
for his wisdom in all that concerned morality and politics. But
he had a standing grief, in that the wealth and power which he
had acquired, and the wisdom which he had attained, could not be
perpetuated in a son born of his own body; nor did his prayers to
the gods in this regard, nor the successive marriages which he
made with sixty wives, result in any male child whom he might
bring up as his successor, and to whom he might teach those
precepts of virtue which every Sage, from his time onward to the
days of Polonius, the Grand Vizier of Denmark, has wished to
eternize by gravure thereof upon the youthful mind. At the last
his reiterated appeals brought him the reply of the Supreme
Power that he should take his sister’s son and bring him up as his
own offspring’.
1 [The folk-lore details of the bringing up of Nadan can he found in the literature
of Tibet. Take for instance the detail of the eight nurses.
This seems to he a favourite feature of Kasteru story-telling.
The following illustrations from Tibetan Tales (von Schiefner and Ralston).
Story of Sidhana Avadana: p. 52.
‘The hoy Sudhana was handed over to eight nurses, two to carry him, two to
suckle him, two to cleanse him, and two to play with him. As these eight nurses
fed him and brought him up on milk, both sweet and curdled, on butter, both fresh
and clarified, on butter-foam (Butter-Schaum) and on the best of other things, he
shot up rapidly like a lotus in a tank.
By the time he was grown up he was acquainted with reading and writing &c.’
p. 257. Story of Visvantara.
‘To the hoy Visvantara were given eight nurses, two for carrying, two for
suckling, two for cleansing and two for playing, who fed him on milk, curdled milk,
butter, melted butter, butter-foam, and divers other excellent kinds of nutriment,
so that he grew rapidly like a lotus in a pool. When he had grown up and learnt
writing, counting, and hand-reckoning &c.’
p. 273. Story of the Fulfilled Prophecy.
‘Let him be named Stryanemi. When he had received that name, he was
entrusted to eight nurses, two for carrying, two for suckling, two for cleansing, and
two for playing. These eight nurses nourished him with milk, curdled milk, butter,
melted butter, butter-foam, and other excellent kinds of food, and he grew apace
INTRODUCTION 1X
The babe who is thus brought on the scene grows into
man’s estate, becomes tall as a cedar (though a mere bramble in
heart), and is in due course introduced to king Sennacherib as the
successor-designate of the now aged Ahikar. He is a ‘goodly
apple, rotten at the core. The precepts of his uncle have scarcely
penetrated the outworks of his mind, and he seems to have grown
up without any taste for the proverbial philosophy whieh Ahikar
had so liberally showered upon him.
He commenced to take more than a son’s place in the home,
and more than a successor’s right in the palace. At home he
squandered, and at court he intrigued. Finally a suggestion on
the part of Ahikar to replace his wilfulness and wantonness by
the superior fidelity of a younger brother brought the intrigue to
a head. Nadan wrote in Ahikar’s name treasonable letters to
neighbouring sovereigns, sealed them with Ahikar’s seal of office
and then betrayed his unele to the king. When the unfortunate
victim of this intrigue is brought before the king, he is unable,
through fear and surprise, to utter a word in his own defence, and
as he who does not exeuse himself, aecuses himself inore effectively
than his slanderers, he is promptly ordered to be done to death.
It happens, however, that Ahikar had on a previous occasion
saved from the wrath of his majesty King Sennacherib, the very
person who is now directed to eut off the head of Ahikar and throw
it a hundred ells from the body. An appeal to his gratitude
results in a seheme by which a substitute is found in the eon-
demned eells at Nineveh to undergo the extreme penalty, while
Ahikar is safely enseonced in a dark underground excavation
beneath his own house, where he is secretly supplied with food,
and has occasional visits of consolation from his friend the
like a lotus in a pool. When he had grown up he learnt writing, reckoniug,
drawing and hand reckoning and the arts and accomplishments.’
p. 279. Story of the two brothers.
‘Tet him be called Kshemankara. This name was giveu to him and he was
entrusted to eight nurses, two to carry him, two to suckle him, two to cleanse him
and two to play with him. These nurses hrought him up on various milk products
and other excellent forms of nourishment, so that he shot up like a lotus in a pool.’]
LAs 6
x INTRODUCTION
Executioner. Here he has the maddening experience of hearing
the overhead revels of Nadan and his boon companious and the
shrieks of his beaten men and maids, and occupies his loneliness
by fervent petitions to the Lord for a rectification of his lot, which
prayers were, if we may judge by subsequent events, more closely
allied to the vindictive Psalms than to the Sermon on the Mount.
The liberation of the imprisoned Vizier comes at length
through political dangers in which his wise head and steady hand
were needed and not found. The king of Egypt, presuming on
the reports of Ahikar’s death, sends a series of absurd demands to
Sennacherib of a type which Eastern story-tellers affect, demanding
answers to fantastic questions and the performance of impossible
requirements’. Inter alia, he will have a castle built in the air
and ropes twisted out of sand?, All the while he conceals beneath
these regal amenities the desire to damage the Assyrian kingdonu.
Ahikar is now in demand: Assyria has need of him; and the
prudent Executioner plays the friend’s part by confiding to the
king that the Sage is still living. The re-instatement of the
buried outcast affords material for the story-teller to dilate upon,
as he records how the wasted and withered old man, with nails
1 [For a parallel, take Wiedemann, Popular Literature in Ancient Egypt p. 43:
‘The papyrus evidently described an encounter between the rival potentates,
Apepi, the Hyksos of Avaris, and the leader of the national party Ra-sakenen
(Soknunri) whose dwelling-place was in Upper Egypt. Each propounded to the
other riddles and difficult problems, on the solution of which the fate of his
adversary was to depend.’]
* [On the demand to make ropes out of sand, we may compare :
Tales from Tibet (v. Schiefner and Ralston) p. 138.
Story of Mahansadha and Visakha.
‘King Janaka sent a messenger to Pirna, the head man of the hill-village
Parnakatshtshha with an order to send a rope made of sand one hundred ells Jong.
When the messeuger had arrived and communicated the order, Pirna was greatly
alarmed. From his birth upwards he had never seen nor heard of such a thiug,
and he would therefore have to expect a reprimand...Mahanshadha asked him to
send for the messenger, saying that he would reply to the king. Thereupon he said to
the messenger, ‘‘ Make known to the people this my request, without forgetting it.
As the peop of our country are slow-witted, unintelligent and stupid, may it
please the king to send an ell of that kind of rope as a pattern, like unto which
we will twine a hundred, nay, a thousand ells, and will send them to him”...The
king was astonished.’
INTRODUCTION Xl
grown like eagle’s talons and hair like the shaggy fells of beasts, is
brought back to his place of power.
And here Justice might well step in and avenge on Nadan his
intrigue and crime. But the moral action of the story is checked
while it is related (it must be admitted that it is done too much
in detail) how Ahikar answered all the hard questions and evaded
the absurd demands of Pharaoh of Egypt. Then, when Ahikar
returns enriched with gifts, and with an enhanced reputation for
wisdom, and appears before Sennacherib as the saviour of his
country, there comes the moment when Nemesis is on the heels of
Nadan, who is delivered up to his uncle, that he may work his
vengeance on him.
The wretched young man is tamed by the preliminary discipline
of flogging, followed by a black-hole with bread and water, and his
uncle enriches his mind with further instruction of a very personal
character and application; and when, at the close of this pre-
liminary treatment, Ahikar is preparing the extreme penalty for
Nadan, the nephew simplifies the action of the play by swelling
up and bursting asunder in a melodramatic manner which satisfies
all the instincts of Justice.
Such, in brief, is the story which has come to light in the
Arabian Nights and elsewhere. Whether it be actually a part of
the recitations by which for 1001 nights the faithful and ingenious
Scheherezadé whiled away the impatience and wore out the
mistrust and wrath of the Sultan, or whether it is only a sup-
plement to that collection, is not of immediate importance. We
may make its acquaintance, if we will, in the Arabian Nights; but
the real question which has arisen is the possible transference of
the story, either wholly or in part, into the borders of a much
older and more reverend literature.
Now it would not at all surprise us, if in the study of a
collection so rich in material for the history of religion and so full
of folk-lore as the Arabian Nights, we should be able to find
instructive parallels by which to elucidate what is obscure in
Biblical or Patristic writings.
Xi INTRODUCTION
How full, for example, is such a story as that of the ‘Two
Sisters who envied their younger Sister’ of matter borrowed from
the very earliest folk-lore: and all folk-lore is elucidatory of the
history of belief. But this general correspondence becomes minute
and particular in such a case as the description, in the story
alluded to, of the Singing Tree, which is known to the students of
Christian Martyrology in the Visions of Perpetua as one of the
plants of Paradise.
And not only do the Tales of the ‘Thousand Nights and a
Night’ elucidate ecclesiastical literature, they are themselves also
reciprocally elucidated by Biblical and Patristic parallels. To
take a single instance, in the story of ‘the Linguist Dame, the
Duenna and the King’s son,’ we have one case out of a cycle, in
which the asking of hard questions is made a prominent feature.
This kind of questioning goes on in the story of the Linguist
Dame with some of the same material that 1s found in the
catechising of Ahikar by the Pharaoh of Egypt: that is to say, the
matter is recurrent and cyclical. The Biblical parallel, par ex-
cellence, 1s, of course, the catechising of Solomon by the Queen of
Sheba, which furnished abundant scope to the fertile imaginations
of those who desired to speculate on the kind of riddles that might
have perplexed the wisest of kings. Among these questions in
‘the Linguist Dame’ there is one which involves early Syriac
Commentaries upon the Bible. The king’s son is asked by the
lady to inform her ‘concerning the Naqus or Gong, who was the
inventor thereof and at what time it was first struck in the history
of the world?’ The riddle is immediately solved by the king’s son,
who declares that the Naqus was invented by Noah and was first
struck by him in the Ark. The answer seems, at first sight, to be
almost as perplexing as the question. But a reference to the
Syriac Literature helps us: thus in the Cave of Treasures, com-
monly attributed to St Ephrem, we find the directions for making
of a Naqus by Noah, and the information is given that he struck
it three times in the day, once in the morning, so as to gather the
workmen for building the Ark, and at midday for the workmen’s
INTRODUCTION Xili
dinner, and at night that they might cease from work. And this
legend, which may be found elsewhere in Syriac, underlies the
question in the story of ‘the Linguist Dame.’ So that we need
not be surprised that Biblical and Patristic learning should be
elucidatory of obscurities in the Arabian Nights, nor that a
converse statement should be possible. It is, however, a very
little step indeed, to show that the two literatures are mutually
explanatory: and what we have proposed is the much more
startling thesis that a curious story in the Arabian Nights belongs
to the fringe and penumbra of the Biblical Literature itself.
The a priori improbability of this thesis may be diminished
by observing that there is one proved case of transfer from the
Apocrypha of the Old Testament into the body of the Arabian
Nights. The story of Susanna is incorporated, canonized we may
say, by Scheherezadé, although it is the most demonstrably Greek
of all the Biblical Apocrypha. ‘Susanna and the Elders’ is an
antilegomenon in one literature, an accepted part of another.
Why, then, may not a somewhat similar statement be true of
the story of Ahikar?
Those who were the first students of the book had observed
the Biblical colouring of the story. Thus Salhani, who was the
publisher of the Arabic text remarks: ‘on y reconnait le style
vulgaire de Syrie et le ton simple, naif et sans appréts d’un
lecteur de la S® Bible. Plusieurs avis mis dans la bouche du
sage Haiqar sont tirés des proverbes de Salomon. According to
Salhani, then, the style of the book is due to the fact that its
author was a Bible-reader: he did not suspect, however, that he
might have been a Bible-writer.
Burton, also, was much impressed with the same feature. His
notes, unpleasant and irritating as they sometimes are, show that
he understood that there was Biblical matter in what he was
translating: eg. p. 2, ‘The surroundings suggest Jehovah, the
tribal deity of the Jews’: p. 4, ‘This barbarous sentiment [as
to the value of the rod in the education of children] is Biblical—
inspired’: p. 9, ‘The simplicity of the old Assyrian correspondence
XIV INTRODUCTION
is here well preserved.’ His judgment is, however, surprisingly
aberrant and self-contradictory when he declares of the great
idol Bel, to whom Ahikar had compared his master Sennacherib,
that ‘Bel may here represent Hobal, the biggest idol in the
Meccan Pantheon, which used to be borne on raids and ex-
peditions to give plunder a religious significance. This is
going out into the wilderness with a vengeance! Were the gods
of Nineveh so obscure and so unknown that they had to be
displaced in favour of a Meccan fetish ?
Kirby, who has added some notes to Burton’s great trans-
lation, points out that of Ahikar’s precepts, many find their
parallels, not only in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, as we might
reasonably expect, but in the Havamdl of the Elder Edda! It
is unfortunate that he did not carry the subject of Biblical
parallels a little further, in which case he might actually have
found the leading characters in the story of Ahikar existing in
the text of the Septuagint !
I believe it was Hoffmann who first carried the discussion
of the Biblical element in the story of Ahikar out of mere con-
jectural resemblances into demonstrated consanguinity. His
famous tract entitled Ausztige aus Syrische Erzdhlungen von
Persischen Médrtyrern, appeared in the vulth volume of the
Abhandlungen fiir Ktinde des Morgenlands in the year 1880.
On p. 182 of this beautiful piece of investigation into the history
of the Syrian Church, he points out how frequently the monastic
legends of Syria are affected by geographical and historical details
derived from the ancient kingdom of Assyria. And he suggests
as a special instance, that the story of Ahikar?, which he had
come across in the mss. of the British Museum, had some con-
nexion with the book of Tobit. Accordingly he points out that
the name Ahikar stands in Tob. xi. 17 as “Ayeryap in the so-
called B-recension? of the Greek text, while the nephew of Ahikar
appears in the same place as Na@aé. From which he concludes
1 e.g, in Cod. Add. 7200, our §).
2? Which has nothing, however, to do with Codex B.
INTRODUCTION XV
that the Syrians of Athor (the Ancient Assyria) made use of the
book of Tobit in one of the recensions in which this book has
come down to us'. . .
_ If Hoffmann’s view had been correct, J suppose we should
have been obliged to say that the story of Ahikar was wntten
(in part, at all events) to explain certain allusions in the book
of Tobit. These are certainly puzzhng enough to the modern
reader, who does not see why the dying Tobit should mingle
with his last commissions and instructions a reference to the
ill-treatment of Ahikar by his adopted son: and what the modern
reader feels, is reflected in the manner in which the scribes of
the Tobit legend have striven to mend the passages in question
by inserting better known and, as they supposed, more appropriate
names.
For, to take the leading passage referred to, viz. Tob. xiv. 10,
the ‘reader of the English Apocrypha finds the following abrupt
transition in the last words of Tobit:
‘Bury me decently and thy mother with me: but tarry no
longer in Nineve. Remember, my son, how Aman handled
Achiacarus that brought him up, how out of light he brought
him into darkness, and how he rewarded him again: yet
Achiacarus was saved, but the other had his reward, for he
went down into darkness. Manasses gave alms, and escaped
the snares of death which they had set for him: but Aman
fell into the snare, and perished.’
The perplexity which this passage has caused to the scribes
is evident from the emendation of the proper names. Nadan has
been replaced by Aman, and Ahikar by Manasseh! It 1s fortunate
that Achiacarus has not altogether disappeared, or the whole
recognition of the characters might have been lost.
We are indebted, then, to Hoffmann for identifying the
characters which appear so obscurely in Tobit with those that
occur in the story of Ahikar: but he leaves the matter almost
as perplexing as he found it to the critical enquirer, who wishes
.. Hoffmann, l. c. pp, 182, 183.
xvl INTRODUCTION
to know, not whether any one has been explaining obscure pas-
sages in Tobit, so much as the reason why those passages are
obscure.
It does not, moreover, seem to have occurred to Hoffmann that
the identification which he made between the characters referred
to in the two stories might be explained in another way. It
clearly was not necessary to assume that Ahikar was later than
Tobit, and that the existence of the Syriac and Arabic legends
of Ahikar involved the acquaintance of the East Syrians with
the Old Testament Apocrypha. For example, Tobit might be
dependent upon Ahikar, or both of them upon a third document
which has disappeared. If the supposition of Hoffmann were
correct, then the story of Ahikar would be an apocryphon of the
second order, written, in part, to explain obscure allusions in an
earlier apocryphon. Its relation to Tobit would then be something
like the supplementary position which it occupies in the Arabian
Nights; it would be an antilegomenon in two collections. But
if Tobit were the later of the two compositions, then Ahikar
takes its place amongst the Old Testament Apocrypha by right
of the firstborn ; and the elder ceases to serve the younger. It is
now no longer commentary, it has become text; and, so far as one
-writer is commentator upon the other, it is Tobit that moralizes
upon what has been read in Ahikar.
It becomes, therefore, of the first importance to determine
whether Hoffmann’s valuable information concerning the common
matter in Tobit and in Ahikar should be explained as Hoffmann
has done, or whether the relative priority of the two stories should
be reversed.
Now we may say at once that the internal evidence of the
two stories is sufficient to decide the question in favour of the
second alternative. But before making the necessary textual
comparison, it may be well to watch a little more in detail the
way in which the attention of critics was being drawn to this
remarkable legend.
It had already been pointed out by J. S. Assemani in his
INTRODUCTION XVll
Bibliotheca Orientalis when describing a Ms. of the story of
Ahikar, that a similar story was extant in the Aesop legends.
As we shall see by and by, the story of the adventures of
Aesop at the court of Lykéros, king of Babylon, are an exact
parallel to the story of the wise Ahikar. So that the problem
is now complicated by the introduction of a third competitor for
the place of honour, and this time a Greek competitor.
The importance of this fresh factor was further accentuated
by the discovery of a text of the legend which was clearly based
upon a Greek original; for it was found to have passed over
into Slavonic, and to be, even at the present day, very popular
in Russia. And the publication of a translation of this Slavonic
text? in 1892 by Jagi¢ rendered a comparison possible between
the story as 1t had come down in Arabic (probably from a Syriac
base) and the Slavonic (as it had come down from a Greek base).
So that the argument for a Greek original could be maintained
from the Aesop legends plus the Slavonic version, as against
the theory of a Semitic original, based on the Arabian Nights
plus such Syriac and other Oriental versions as might be re-
covered. :
Nor was the diffusion of the legend of Ahikar exhausted even
by this statement, for there were parallels and allusions in
Eastern literature, not a few, both to the history of Ahikar and
his ethics and his wise solution of riddles and other peculiarities
of the story as current in Greek or in Arabic, which rendered
it certain that the story could not be of modern growth or
development.
It became necessary, therefore, that a closer investigation
1B. O. it 508. Cod. 40, in indice codd. Arab., continet Hicari Philosophi
Mosulani praecepta. [Mosulani is the Arabic translation of the Syriac for
Ninevite ?]
B. O. iii. 286. Historia Hicari sapientis et quae ipsi contigere cum Nadan
sororis suae filio et cum rege Aegypti. [Cod. Arab, 55.] De Hicaro eadem fere
narrantur quae de Aesopo Phryge. Ejusdem Hicari, qui Philosophus Mosulanus
appellatur, praecepta Arabice extant Cod. 40.
2 Byzantinische Zeitschrift, Vol. i. Pt. 1, 1892,
eee c
XVII INTRODUCTION
should be made of the relations between Tobit and the Greek
and Semitic forms of the legend of Ahikar. Accordingly Kuhn,
who had added an admirable summary of the materials available
for criticism of the legend to the translation published by Jagié,
asked especially for a fresh treatment of the Aesop legends. Kuhn,
however, still followed Hoffmann in regarding the story of Ahikar
as being dependent upon what is called the B-recension of the
book of Tobit.
In 1894 there appeared, in response to Kuhn's appeal, a new
and remarkably fresh and exhaustive treatment of the whole
subject by Meissner, entitled Quellenuntersuchungen zur Hatkar-
geschichte, in which the question of the relative priority of the
Greek and Semitic legends was re-examined and an abundance
of fresh material relating thereto was brought forward’.
We shall see presently that Meissner, in spite of the valuable
material which he accumulated, drew wrong conclusions in giving
to the Aesop legends the priority over those contained in the
Arabian Nights: and while recognising, as he could not fail to
do, the allusions to the story in the book of Tobit, he treated
that story as if it existed, in the days before Tobit, merely in
the form of floating legend, and not in the form of a_ book.
According to Meissner, in four passages the author of the book of
Tobit alludes to a certain Eastern Sage, whose history he throws
into connexion with the hero of his own book. We may then,
according to Meissner’s view of the case, assume the existence
of an ancient Hebrew legend, whose hero was Ahikar, which
legend was transferred by a Greek writer to Aesop. This story
was committed to writing by Syrian Christians in the seventh
or eighth century A.D., probably with an actual employment of
the already existing Greek form.
The person of Ahikar was thus, according to Meissner, well
known to antiquity, and his fame had spread far and wide from
Syria. The origin of the Jewish legend was earlier than the book
of Tobit, which is, with good reason, referred to the first or second
1 The tract will be found in Z, D. M. G. vol. 48, pp. 171-197.
INTRODUCTION XIX
century B.c. Meissner does not think the story of Ahikar was
current much earlier. In any case it was committed to writing in
Greek. And at the time when this was done, Hebrew was already
an ecclesiastical language, not understood of the people. And this
fact, together with the non-religious character of the story, renders
it certain that the book was never received into the Apocryphal
books, so that it passed into an undeserved obscurity.
Such were Meissner’s conclusions. They were promptly
challenged by Lidzbarski!, who suggested as a more probable
alternative that the Syriac legends were a translation of a book
already existing before the days of Tobit and employed by the
writer of that apocryphal story; and Lidzbarski thought it was
more likely that the primitive legend was written in Hebrew than
in Greek. We shall see presently that this is the true solution.
Lidzbarski followed up his criticism by publishing in 1896 a
complete translation? of the Arabic version of the story, and this
publication is commented upon by Dr James in the second volume
of his Apocrypha Anecdota. As might have been expected,
Dr James saw that the story was not only involved in the book of
Tobit, but that it had also been employed in the New Testament
(in the Parable of the Wicked Servant), and he at once conceded its
antiquity. ‘This romance, said he, ‘is clearly older than Tobit,’
and he remarks further, that, ‘as the story was clearly popular,
and is also clearly prae-Christian, it would be no very strange
thing if the Parable [of the Wicked Servant in Matt. xxiv. 48, cf.
Luke xii. 45] has borrowed a trait or two from it. We shall see
that its influence upon the New Testament 1s even stronger than
Dr James had imagined*.
Last of all, a discussion of the legend, with a fresh translation
from the Syriac, was given by Dr E. J. Dillon, in the Contemporary
Review for March 1898. Dr Dillon does not discuss the question
1 Lidzbarski’s tract will be found in Z. D. M. G. vol. 48, pp. 671-675. Zum
weisen Achikar.
2 Lidzbarski, Geschichten und Lieder.
3 Since then Dr James has treated the story at some length in a communication
to the Guardian (Feb. 2, 1898), in which he discusses some further parallels.
XX INTRODUCTION
of the Biblical Parallels, but he brings forward fresh reasons for
believing that Ahikar is a survival from ‘the numerous Hebrew
writings which, having no direct bearing upon religion, were passed
over when the Canon was formed and nearly all of which were thus
lost for ever?’
Such is the record, expressed in the briefest terms, of the
investigations which have been accumulating with regard to this
beautiful and interesting Eastern romance. They result in a
general consent as to the antiquity of the story, and im an inti-
mation of its close connexion with the Scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments.
Having thus briefly described the slow advance of the critical
wave that has been breaking upon the shore, we will now set down
in order some of the materials that are available for the restoration
of the story to its earliest form.
* Our own studies of Ahikar were publicly announced before the appearance of
Dr Dillon’s article; we should gladly have left the whole field to him, if we had
known in advance the labour that he had bestowed on the subject, of which only a
very small part appears in the article in the Contemporary Review. We are indebted
to him for many valuable suggestions.
CHAPTER II
MATERIALS FOR CRITICISM
THE diffusion of the story of Ahikar is so wide, that it requires
somewhat more than an average linguistic equipment to treat the
whole of the forms and versions that have come to light.
We shall see reason to believe that it is a companion to the
book of Tobit and, in a less striking degree, to the book of Daniel ;
and that it ought to be bound up with other biblical and semi-
biblical matter of the same kind under the heading of ‘ Ninevite
‘and Babylonian legends.’ But if it be such a volume as that
title would indicate and belong to the same period which produced
Tobit and Daniel, then the probability is that 1¢ has, like them, an
original form that was either Hebrew or Aramaic, And we should
expect, a priort, that this original would give rise to two main
versions, a Syriac and a Greek. We must apply critical methods
to test this hypothesis, just as we should do in the case of Tobit.
When we have settled that question it will not be so difficult
to determine what subordinate versions depend on the Greek and
Syriac respectively. That is, we should naturally expect that the
Slavonic version would come from a Greek base, even though we
have not succeeded in actually recovering such an underlying
document. The case of the adaptations which pass as ‘lives of
Aesop’ will require a separate treatment. On the Oriental side,
there will probably be little difficulty in deriving the Arabic
version from the Syriac and the Ethiopic from the Arabic. But
the problem of the origin of the Armenian version will be more
XXll INTRODUCTION
difficult. Whether there are other lost versions is another point
that must be reserved for further study. It is quite possible that
the story may have passed into India by way of the Old Persian,
in which case it may perhaps be still lurking amongst the Parsee
literature. Benfey went so far as to attempt to connect the story
with the earlier Indian literature and to recognize Ahikar in the
wise Vizier Cakatala of the Cukapasati legends, but his suggestion
has not been favourably received.
We shall be satisfied if we can find sufficient evidence for an
underlying Hebrew or Aramaic text, and if we can throw some
light upon the early Greek and Syriac texts in their relation to
this lost primitive and to one another.
But in order to open the discussion on these points, we must
describe the sources from which our extant versions are derived
and from which they may be emended.
(1) Zhe Syriac version.
Of the Synac, properly so called, there is not much extant. °
We have, however, a fragment in the British Museum, a copy in
the Cambridge University Library and a copy at Berlin.
(S,). The fragment in the British Museum is a single leaf in
a Nestorian Ms, of the 12th or 18th century: it is numbered 7200
amongst the Additional mss. and the leaf that contains Ahikar is
the 114th. It is a good deal water-stained and is consequently
difficult to decipher. We have printed it separately, as the text
appears to be good.
(S,). The Cambridge Ms. belongs to the collection that was
formerly in the possession of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge, and is now numbered Add. 2020 in the University
Catalogue. The following is the description of it in the
Catalogue :
Univ Cant. Add. 2020.
Paper, about 12 in. by 8: 190 leaves, of which several are
soiled and mutilated, especially f. 158. F. 190 is blank. The
INTRODUCTION XXL
quires were originally twenty in number, but the first and second
and one leaf of the third have been lost, and their place is taken by
the modern supply ff.1—5. The remaining quires have 10 leaves,
except on [8], \. [22] and Aa [5]. There is a lacuna after
f. 184, The writing (27 to 30 lines in a page) is a good Nestorian
serta of the year 2009 =a.p. 1697.
This volume contains
1. Histories of saints and other matters chiefly theological.
5. The proverbs or history of Ahikar the wise, the scribe of
Sanhéribh, king of Assyria and Nineveh f. 66*.
6. A short extract from the maxims of Solomon f. 78°.
7. Fables of the wise Josephus (Aesopus) f. 78°.
10. Other fables of Josephus (Aesopus) f. 105”.
etc. etc.
(S,). The Berlin Ms. is Cod. Sachau. 336. Iam sorry not to
have been able to collate it.
(S,, S;, S,). These signs refer to three more copies that have
come to our knowledge as being in the possession of the American
Mission at Ooroomiah. All of them are modern transcripts,
but one of them (S,) is said to be made from an exemplar of
an early date.
(2) Arabic and Karshuni teats.
We have given especial attention to the Arabic text as pub-
lished from a Karshuni Ms. by Salhani (Contes Arabes: Beyrout),
and to certain copies in the University Library at Cambridge and
in the British Museum.
(K,). Of these the most important is a Cambridge ms. (Add.
2886), formerly in the collection of the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge. It is a very late Karshuni text, on paper.
The story of Ahikar begins on f. 81* and goes to f 106%.
(K,). Next to this comes a MS. in the British Museum from
XX1V INTRODUCTION
the collection of Claudius J. Rich, and numbered Add. 7209. It
is a Karshuni MS. on paper and contains the story of Ahikar on
ff. 182°—213°.
(K,). We have not examined the Gotha MS. 2652 which
contains on ff. 47°—64» a Karshuni text of the legend. The No.
of this Ms. is given by Cornill, Buch der weisen Philosophen p. 82,
as 589, but by Kuhn in Byzantin. Zeitschrift 1. 129 as 2562. The
text of the sayings of Ahikar was printed from this MS. by
Cornill.
(K,). A similar Ms. appears to be described by Assemani as
No. xXx. of Syriac mss. from Aleppo; and
(K;) Meissner appears to have another of the same type from
the Sachau collection at Berlin. This ms. seems to be a later
acquisition than those described in the Kurzes Verzeichniss der
Sachawschen Sammlung. It is written in a Neo-Aramaic dialect ;
and if we rightly understand Lidzbarski (Geschichten und Lieder
p. x) it is a translation made from the Arabic by the deacon Isaiah
of Kullith in the Tur-Abdin. On this Ms. (?) and on the printed
text of Salhani, Lidzbarski bases his translation.
Of Arabic texts proper, there may probably be found examples
in the library at Copenhagen and in the Vatican Library.
(A,). Copenhagen. Cod. Arab. cCXXXVL., written in 1670, and
containing on ff. 1—41, ‘historiam fabulosam ‘Haiqari, Persici
philosophi, qui San’haribi aetate vixisse fertur.’
(A,). Assemani notes Cod. Arab. XI. (written in 1766) from
the collection of Pope Innocent XIIL:
(A,) and Cod. 55 amongst the Arabic Mss. in the Vatican.
(3) Aethropre.
Next in order comes the Aethiopic text of the Sayings of
Ahikar, which has been published by Cornill in his Buch der
weisen Philosophen.
(Ae,) (Ae,). Cornill has two Mss., one from Frankfort and the
other from Tiibingen, which he designates by the signs F and T.
INTRODUCTION XXV
We have not ventured to print the Aethiopic text, but have made
some use of Cornill’s rendering of it.
(4) Armenian version.
Of this version Mr Conybeare gives us the following de-
scription, including both copies and printed texts.
(Arm,=Bod.). A ms. in the Bodleian Library, not yet catalogued
or numbered. This is a paper MS., in a rare form of notergir
or small cursive. The first page of Khikar has been torn out in
such a way as to leave the beginnings of the last six lines on
recto and verso.
(Arm,= Ven.). No. 482 in the Library of San Lazaro in Venice,
written in bolorgir or large cursive, on parchment, undated, but
of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.
(Arm; = Paris 92). In the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris,
Ancien Fonds Arménien No. 92, on paper. In this Ms. only the
last half of Khikar is contained from p. 141 of the printed text to
the end. The scribe has added at the end of it the date 1067 of
the Armenian era=a.D. 1619. The hand is a peculiar one, and
the piece begins on fol. 179.
(Arm, = Paris Supp. 58). Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds Arm.
Supplément No. 58. On paper, in notergir or small cursive, ill-
written in the seventeenth century. The text occupies fol. 253
to end of the Ms. but is incomplete, and breaks off at p. 141.
(Arm,= Paris 131). Bibliothéque Nationale, Anc. Fonds Arm.
No. 131, contains the text on foll. 213—228, written on "paper,
probably late in the seventeenth century, in an untidy notergir
hand.
(Arm,= Paris 69). Bibliotheque Nationale, Anc. Fonds Arm.
No. 69. A large quarto, well-written in large bolorgir or cursive,
on charta bombycina in the seventeenth century. The text of
Khikar begins with the précepts, the prelude being absent.
(Arm, = Bod. Canon). Bodleian Library, Ms. Canon. Orient.
131; written in large clear bolorgir or cursive on charta bombycina.
L, A. 2
XXVl1 INTRODUCTION
Khikar occupies foll. 1—36". This codex was written in New
Djulfa or Ispahan a.p. 1697 by Hazrapet the priest for the use
of a person named Israel.
Khikar is followed by the Romance of the Seven Sages and by
the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. |
(Arm,=Edjm.). In the Library of Edjmiatzin, No. 2048 in the
new Catalogue, a small well-written codex, in notergir or small
cursive, on charta bombycina of about a.D. 1600. Of this codex
Mr Conybeare transcribed in the year 1891 the exordium and the
first eighteen precepts.
To the foregoing may be added the following copies contained
in catalogues or otherwise known to exist:
In the catalogue of the library of Edjmiatzin printed in Tiflis
in 1868,
Nos. 1683 [A.D. 1604])
1995 [a.D. eee a eee 1
1986 [a.p. 1623) paper in small cursive.
51 [a.p. 1642]
Recently acquired by the British Museum, a small cursive MS.
on paper, written in the 18th cent. The Berlin Library contains
(see Dr Karamian’s catalogue of Arm. MS.) a MS. of Khikar (No.
83 = Ms. Or. Peterm. 1. 147) of the year 1698, which contains the
precepts on ff. 1—26". In this Ms. as in Bodley Canon. Or. 131
Khikar is followed by the History of the Seven Sages.
It should further be noticed that the Armenian Khikar has
been three times printed at Constantinople. Details of the three
editiofis are given in the Armenian Bibliography issued at San
Lazaro, Venice, in 1883. The first was printed in 1708 under the
title ‘The Book of the History of the Brazen City, and the
Questions of the Damsel and Youth. And the History of Khikar
and of king Phohloula and so forth, which is a picture of the
world. The editor was one Sargis.
The next edition was in 1731 under the title, ‘The Book of the
History called the Brazen City. And the instructive and helpful
sayings of the wise man Khikar, with other profitable sayings.
INTRODUCTION XXVI1I
Printed in the year of our era 1106 (=A.D. 1781) in the press of
the humble Astouatsatour.
The third edition was in 1862 at the press of R. J.
Qurqdshean.
(5) The Greek version.
(Aes.). For the elucidation of this version we have printed
those parts of the legends of the hfe and death of Aesop which
appear to be an adaptation of the story of Ahikar. Our text is
taken from Eberhard, Fabulae Romanenses Graece conscriptae.
The part that corresponds to the story of Ahikar begins on p. 285,
exxili, and continues to p. 297, end of cxxxn. There is a good
deal of variation in these Aesop legends.
(6) The Slavonic version.
(SL). Our text of this version is a translation from the
German of Jagi¢, printed in Byzant. Zeitsch. 1. pp. 107—126. No
attempt has been made to follow up the Russian investigations of
the subject. [There is also a Rumanian version; see Kuhn in
Byzant. Zevtsch. 1. p. 130.]
These, then, are the chief authorities for the text and its
tradition. The editions of the Arabian Nights, and especially
the translations, are hardly to be taken as authorities, on account
of the freedom with which they handle the matter.
(To the foregoing must now be added
(7) The Old Turkish version which we have here given is
a transliteration and a translation from a Vienna MSs. (Cod. 468 of
the Mechitarist Library)
and,
(8) which ought really to be first and foremost, the Aramaic
version from Elephantiné, which we have described below. ]
CHAPTER [iI
OF THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THE STORY OF AHIKAR
WE will commence our investigation into the primitive legend
which underlies all the versions described above by enquiring into
the tradition of the names of the chief personages in the story,
with the view of determining the proper forms of those names,
and of finding out anything further about the leading characters,
First of all, with regard to the spelling of the name of the hero of
the legend. We have found him described as Haykar [Heykar,
Hikar] in the Arabic story: from two Karshuni mss. which
contain the story (K, and K,) we have the spelling Ahikar and
Hikar. The Syriac Ms. in the British Museum has Ahikar, and
so have the Cambridge and Berlin Syriac mss. The Armenian
text has Ahikar which does not agree perfectly with any of the
forms quoted, nor with the transliteration of ’Aysdyapos in the
Armenian Tobit.
The evidence suggests a Syriac form Afikar from which the
Arabic, Karshuni and Aethiopic are derived. ‘he Slavonic form
is Akyrios which can hardly be primitive.
Now let us turn to the book of Tobit. The book exists in two
Greek recensions and in Aramaic: of the two Greek recensions,
that found in the Sinaitic ms. differs so radically from the text
of the Vatican and Alexandrian Mss. that the Cambridge editors
have felt obliged to print it separately at the foot of the text
which is based on the Vatican ms. We must, then, examine
carefully the evidence that is furnished by the two recensions
when they may happen to differ. The passages to be examined
are as follows:
INTRODUCTION
XX1X
Tobit-a. Shiva
Vatican text.
3
kat €Bacirevoev Zaxepdovds 6 vids
? ~ 3 3 a “~ 5 3 é
avrov dvr’ airov, kai éragev Ayidyapov
\ “ “~ 3
rov “AvanA vioy rov ddeAdov pov ert
magayv Thy exdoyoreiav ths BactAcias
avrov kai emi macay thy Stoiknow. Kat
nkiowev “Axtdyapos epi €yod, kal HAOov |
- 3
eis Neveun. “Ayedyapos b€ hy 6 olvoxdos
+, eer eam | Le é .Y \ x
kat émt Tov SaxtuAiov cal dtorxnrys Kai
éxdoyiorns, Kal xaréotncev avtov 6
Saxepdovds, vids, éx Sevrépas: jv dé
e&adeAQos pov.
C.,
7 3 - i 3 ? s +
kal emopevOny mpos larpovs, kai otk
apédAnody pe: “Aytdyapos de erpeév
pe Ews ov eropevOyy eis thy EAXupaida.
G. Xl.
kateyéveTo yapa maor Tots ev Nwev7
adeAgois avrov. Kal mapeyévero Axtd-
xapos xai NaoBas 6 e€adeddos avrod.
Sinaitic text.
kal €Bacitevoey Sayepdovds vids
> “ > 3 1” 3 ¢
avTou peT airdv, kal érakey ‘Ayeixapov
ft ‘ “~ “
Tov ‘Avan tov tov dbeddod pou vidy
emit macay tHv exAoyortiay THs Bact-
“ ?
Aelas adrov, kal adros efyev THY e&ovclay
~ 3 >
émt macay thy Stoixknow. rdre n&iwoev
"Ayelya ept éuov, kat xarnAOoyv ef
yelyapos mept éuov, kal xatrnAOov eis
‘ ? > ? 4 > ¢
Thy Nevevn. <Ayxetyapos yap nv o
dpxtorvoxdos kai eri rod OaxruAiov Kat
Storxntys Kai éxAoyoTys émt Sevvayn-
. ’ > é ‘ r
pei Bactrtéws Acoupior, kat xaTréoTyoey
’ > 4
avrov Sayepdoves é€x Seurépas. jv be
if f , ‘ 3 n ry
e&adeAdds pov Kat ex THs ovyyevias
pov.
kal émt Zapyeddvos Bacidéas....
10.
\» 3 / 4 4 + ‘ a
kal €mopevdpny mpos Tovs larpous Ge-
parevOnvat, kat do@ évexpioody pe Ta
f 4 ~ 5 ~
pdappaka, TorovT@ paddov e&eruAovvro
¢ 3 , ~ é 4
of opOaApoi pou Trois AevKdpacw péx pt
n~ Y “ Lov 30 7
TOU GToTUPAWOnVaL. KaiHpyny dduvatos
ww > “~ od - 4 if
Tots opGadpots ern Teooepa. Kai WayTES
¢€ 3 é 3 Led Noa bet X
oi adeA oi pou eAvrrovrTo mrepi Euov, Kal
3 id af ? cd ? ~
Axevaxapos erpedév pe ern dvo mpd tov
airéy Badioa eis tiv “EXupaida.
17, 18.
év TH Hepa TavTy éyeveTo yapa macw
e343 , ~ 3 3 t x
Trois Iovdaios rots odaw ev Niveuyn. Kat
mapeyévovTo Ayecxap kat Nafad of é&a-
SeAot avrov yaipovres mpos TwoBeww.
c. xiv. 10.
réxvov, ie Ti erroinoey “Addp “Axta-
xapo ro Opéyavte airdv, as ex Tov
dards Hyayev airov els TO oKGTOS Kal
éca dvrarédwxev aite* Kal Axtaxapov
pev tracey, éxcivg b€ Ta dvramddopa
daredd6n, kai adtos xaréBn eis TO oKaTOSs.
Mavacojs émoingey éXenpoovvyy, Kai
én éx mayidos Oavarouv Hs emnfev
airG, "Addy d€ evérecer eis ry mayida
Kat Gm@Aero.
ide, wadiov, daa NadaS émoingey
"Ayexdp@ To exOpépayri airdy, ovyxt
xexdpp TO &xOp v, ody!
~ 5 “ > s
Cav xarqvéxOn eistny yay ; Kat am édwxev
6 Oeds thy arisiay kata. m7 pdawToY avToU:
kal €&ndOev eis Td as ’Axixapos, Kal
Nada eiond ev eis TO oKdTOS TOU aidvos
a f > ~ 3
Gre e(ntyoev arroxtetvat Axeixapoy. ev
T® Toijoal pe EAenuocuvny e&ndOev ex
j novieal us Denovivny dbinber
Tis waryidos Tov Bavarov iy emngev aira
4
Nada, cat Nadaf rece eis rhv mayida
~ 4 3 ? 3 ;
rov Gaparou kai dm@Aecey avrov.
XXX INTRODUCTION
c. xiv, 15.
i ’ ‘ z , 4 ~ 3 an
Kat feoveev mpw 7 amobaveiy avrov Kai elOey Kat Kovgev 1 po roo am
” 3 4 % 3 a
Tv dmoXiay Niveuvy fv jxpad@ricey Oavety avtov THY droNiay Nivevy, & t
s > # “~
NaBovxodovoadp Kai ’Aavnpos. eidev THY alypadwoiay avTns ayonevnv
els Mydelav fy xpaAdricev “Axtdkapos
6 Bactheds THs Mydias.
It will be noticed that while the Vatican ms. has “Aya-
xapos and once, by some extraordinary confusion, Mavacojs,
the Sinaitic has ’Ayelyapos, ’“Axerdxyapos, “Axedyapos, “Ayeckap,
“Ayixapos, and "Ayetxapos ; and in three cases the Sinaitic text
of Tobit has the form which is equivalent to the Syro-Arabic
tradition of the legend of Ahikar. Moreover the same form
appears in the versions of the book of Tobit, which are derived from
the Greek of Tobit. Thus the Peshito as edited by Lagarde has
Waar’, and taass, of which the former is a scribe’s blunder
for taasr’, The Old Latin has the same form Achicarus, and
the Vulgate, which has corrected this by means of a Chaldee text,
has fallen, in the single case in which it has preserved the
references to the legend, into the same error that we detected
in the Peshito, viz. Achior’.
Of the other forms in which the Tobit legend occurs we do not
need to speak at length.
It is sufficient to have shown that the evidence for the spelling
Ahikar is very strong, as far as regards the Septuagint and the
versions that are dependent on 1t”
Turning to the nephew of Ahikar, we find the texts in sad
1 From this Meissner conjectures that the Chaldee of which Jerome speaks was
the Peshito.
2 [The name in question has now turned up, and our spelling is justified. The
following note by C. J. Ball in the Expusitory Times for July1908, p. 473 will put
the matier clearly. ‘An old Babylonian tablet in the Library of St John’s College,
Oxford, sets at rest the question of the origin of the curious name Achicarus (Tob.
i, 21 etc.), Here we find among the witnesses to a deed of sale, executed in the
reign of Apel Sin, the fourth king of the First Dynasty (circ. 2100 B.C.) a certain
Achu-wagar (A-chu-wa-qar) the kamarum (perhaps priest, ef. Heb. D3 Zeph. i. 4).
This confirms the 1'MS of the Hebrew and Aramaic versions of Tobit, and proves
that the name is not Persian, but pure Semitic. Other tablets in the same collection
give us Abam-wagar Ili-wagar,’]
INTRODUCTION XXX1
confusion, both as regards his relationship to the chief character,
and the spelling of his name. The Vatican text treats us to
Nasbas and Adam. Of these it has been suggested that the
former 1s meant for the younger brother of Nadan: the latter
arises out of évroinoe Naddu by a wrong division of the words.
The Sinaitic MS. on the other hand varies between NaSaé and
Nada of which the latter is the proper form to edit. We have
thus two related forms Naédau and Nada to set over against the
Nadav of the Syro-Arabic Ahikar. It is not necessary to decide
which form has the priority in a case where the modifications are
mere phonetic variations. As for the versions of Tobit, they show
the same variants, plus an occasional independent variation in the
transcription. The Old Latin has Nabal and Nabad and the
Vulgate the equivalent Nabath. The Peshito reads man and
ead which are Syriac blunders for Nadab and Nadan. The
Slavonic version of Ahikar reads Anadan. The two names, then,
can be restored in the LXX. of Tobit into close agreement with the
Syro-Arabic forms of the legend of Ahikar. And there can be no
residuum of doubt that the same-persons are intended.
There is, however, much confusion in the tradition of the
Septuagint. According to the legend of Ahikar, Nadab is his
sister’s son, and the whole story turns on this relationship.
But in the Vatican Tobit, we are first told that Ahikar is the
son of Tobit’s brother, then that he is his é€aderqos; then that
Nasbas (Nadab ?) is é&adedqos to Ahikar, and finally that Ahikar
is Nadab’s foster-father. We thus have, if we may strain the
meaning of éfaSedpos, a table of consanguinity as follows:
Tobiel
Anael Tobit
—— si
Ahikar eae
Nadab
The Sinaitic text of Tob. x1. 18, on the other hand, supported
by the Vulgate (Achior et Nabath consobrini Tobiae), will have it
that both Ahikar and Nadab are é€adeAdou to Tobit, but this
XXX1l INTRODUCTION
looks susptciously like a case of a plural misread for a singular.
Removing Tobiae from the Vulgate, and restoring the singular
consobrinus (=é£dSedpos) in the sense of nephew, we are in
harmony with the Syro-Arabic legend: and the names of the
leading characters are now practically settled.
We pass on to notice briefly the names of the other personages
involved, and to ask whether there is any supplementary knowledge
to be obtained concerning the wise Ahikar and his fortunes or
misfortunes. The only characters that are clearly identified as
common to the Tobit and Ahikar legends are Ahikar and his
nephew and the king of Assyria. According to Tobit the his-
torical setting of the story is as follows:
Enemessar leads the Israelites of the northern kingdom
into captivity (c. 1. 2):
Upon his death ’"AynpeiA his son rules in his stead
(eo1-3L5):
He is slain by his two sons, and Xayepdovos his son rules
in his stead (c. 1. 21).
Laxepdoves appoints Ahikar his prime minister and the
latter brings Tobit into court favour. Moreover Zayepdoves
had appointed Ahikar to fill the chief offices, being himself
a son by the second wife? (0 Layepdoves vids ex Sevrépas
CG; 121,522):
And at the close of the story (c. xiv. 15) we are informed that
Tobias the son of Tobit lived to see the desolation of Nineveh by
Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus. Such is the story as told in the
Vatican text; it is much confused both in the conception and in the
transcription.
Enemessar is certainly Shalmaneser IV., who came up against
Samaria in the 7th year of Hoshea king of Israel.
"Axnpeir 18 a pure blunder arising from the dropping of a
repeated syllable in
eBactAeycen| CEN JAyHpeIM
1 Which should probably be corrected to 6 Laxepdédvos vids, éx Sevrépas, i.e. the son
of Zaxepdwy appointed him the second time.
INTRODUCTION XXXlll
from which we see that Sennacherib is intended as the successor
of Shalmaneser. It should have been Sargon. The oversight is
due to the fact that the writer of Tobit is following the record of
II. Kings where Sargon is not expressly mentioned. According to
the same record (c. xix. 37) we find that Sennacherib is slain by
Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons, and that Esarhaddon his son
reigned in his stead. He is the Layepdwv or LayepSovds of the
book of Tobit, which definitely alludes to the murder of Sennacherib
by his sons, and has evidently been using the Biblical account.
The period of history covered by Tobit and his son Tobias
ranges as follows:
Shalmaneser IV, 727—722 B.c.
Sargon 722—705
Sennacherib 705—681
Ksarhaddon 681—668
Assurbanipal 668—626,
to which must be added that the fall of Nineveh to which Tobit
refers is assigned to the year 606. This last event is regarded as
due to the action of Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus; from which
we may identify Ahasuerus with Cyaxares, king of Media, and
where we must substitute for Nebuchadnezzar his father Nabo-
polassar, unless we prefer to argue that one of the two kings of
Babylon was general for the other, in which case Tobit’s statement
might pass muster: for the fall of Nineveh was due to a combined
attack of Medes and Babylonians,
As the book assigns an age of 158 years to Tobias and 107 to
his father Tobit, the period of history referred to would be fairly
covered by the two long lives in question. So that we must at
least credit the author with an attempt at historical accuracy.
The account given in the Sinaitic Ms. will be found more correct
in the names: it gives Sennacherim for Sennacherib, and for
Esarhaddon has once Yapyxedv which is very near to the Assyrian
form. (The spelling Zayepddy of the Alexandrian Ms. should also
be noticed.) In the closing passage of the book the Sinaitic Ms.
makes the captivity and fall of Nineveh the work of ‘Aycayapos :
L. A. é
XXX1V INTRODUCTION
this I should take to be a pure blunder, caused by the omission of
Nebuchadnezzar, and the confusion of ’Acdnpos with the frequently
recurring ’"Axvayapos.
Now let us turn to the legend of Ahikar. The versions agree
in referring the story to the days of Sennacherib, the son of
Sarhadum, king of Assyria and Nineveh. There can be no doubt
that Esarhaddon is meant, and that the order of the kings is the
reverse of the historical order as given in Tobit. We should
naturally conclude that the mistake is primitive, for all these
Mesopotamian legends are weak in history and chronology: and
in that case, the blunder would be corrected in Tobit, who has
evidently tried to be historical, by reference to II. Kings’.
It may be suggested that perhaps the original draft of Ahikar
ran as follows: ‘in the days of Sennacherib and in the days of
Esarhaddon, kings of Assyria’; and that this would explam why
Tobit says that Esarhaddon made Ahikar Grand Vizier the second
time. But a reference to later passages in the story in which
Sennacherib speaks of Ahikar’s fidelity in the days of ‘ my father
Esarhaddon’ shows that the mistake runs right through the story,
the whole of which is laid in the reign of Sennacherib.
So we suspect that it is this same blunder which Tobit 1s
trying to correct when he says that Esarhaddon vids é« Seutépas
appointed Ahikar. He had before him a statement that ‘the son
of Esarhaddon made Ahikar vizier the second time,’ i.e. that he
restored him to his original dignity; this has been badly corrected
into ‘Esarhaddon, a son é« devtépas. The awkwardness of the text
of Tobit is due to his direct dependence upon Ahikar, whose
historical details he is trying to correct. We shall allow, then, the
existence of the blunder in the order of the kings, in the earliest
form of the legend?
1 [It turns out that the mistake is not as primitive as suggested, if we may judge
from the Elephantiné papyrus, which has the right historical order. ]
* The proposal to replace Zapyyduv by Sargon is another suggestion for evading
the difficulty. There are, however, too many places to be treated to make the
correction likely: we must say with Sir Isaac Newton (Chronology, p. 282), ‘ Asser-
hadon called Sarcliedon by Tobit.’
INTRODUCTION XXXV
The other names which occur in the story of Ahikar do not
appear in the book of Tobit; careful enquiry must be made
whether they belong to the primitive form of the legend. They
are (i) the name of Ahikar’s wife, (11) the name of Nadan’s
younger brother, (iii) the name of Ahikar’s friend the executioner,
(iv) the name of the king of Persia with whom Nadan intrigues,
(v) the name of Ahikar’s slave, who is set to watch the imprisoned
Nadan, (vi) the names of two boys who are trained to ride on
eagles and build a castle in the air, (vii) the name of the criminal
substituted for Ahikar at the time of execution.
(i) In the latter part of the story of Ahikar, the sixty wives
of the opening sentences are reduced to a single dominant figure
of a very clever woman, who shares her husband’s counsels and
assists his schemes. We are inclined to think that she does not
belong to the original draft of the story. She is called in Syriac
Ashfegani, »AXQ&zurc: and in Arabic (,itxo! or (zie) which
appear to be equivalent to the Syriac form. ‘The Armenian has
Abestan and Arphestan, and the Slavonic drops it altogether.
(ii) Nadan’s younger brother appears in Syriac as Nabu-
zardan, a correct Assyrian form, which may however be derived
from II. Kings xxv.: in the Arabic we find Benuzarden which is
a mere corruption of the foregoing, and Naudan. In the Vatican
text of Tobit, there is a remote probability that he appears as
Nasbas, but the identification is very uncertain.
(iii) The executioner is known in Syriacas Yabusemakh, which
is a corruption of Nabusemakh (the meaning of which may be
‘Nebo has supported’), with which we may compare Ahisamakh
in Ex. xxxi. 6. The Arabic arid Karshuni texts sometimes give
the original form Nabusemakh, and sometimes show corruptions
of it, as Ibn Samikh, or Ibn Samtkh Meskin Kantt, where Meskin
may have arisen out of Samikh, and Kanti may stand for an
original Syriac praia =my colleague. The Armenian has, in fact,
‘ Abusmag, my comrade.’ In Slavonic he is simply ‘my friend,’
which supports the explanation.
[The newly-found papyrus from Elephantiné solves the riddle
XXXVI INTRODUCTION
by giving us the Babylonian form Nebogumiskun, from which the
Arabic forms can be at once explained.] .
It appears both from this case and the preceding one that
the name of an Assyrian deity is involved: this may also be
seen in the Aesop story, which makes the name of the exe-
cutioner Hermippos; Hermes is, in fact, the Greek equivalent
of Nebo. Cf, Abulfaraj, Hist. Dynast. 11, ‘His name is
Nebuchadnezzar, i.e. Hermes speaks.’ We have here a powerful
argument against the priority of the Aesop legends.
(iv) The king of Persia is called, in 8,, Akht bar Hamselum,
gaalco sass t> »Aar, which the Arabic makes into ‘ Achish,
the son of Shah the wise’; I hardly know how to explain this
curious form: perhaps the original reading was Ahasuerus. He
is said in the Arabic to be the king of
Plants spill
ie. Persia and the Barbarians: Meissner had already conjectured
that this should be corrected to Persia and Elam?!; and in fact
the Cambridge Syriac has Elam.
This is further confirmed by the Slavonic version, which reads
‘the king of Persia, Nalon, an independent corruption of the
same phrase. The expression ‘King of Persia and Elam’ cer-
tainly has an archaic look. The trait is lost in the Armenian.
(v) The name of the slave who writes down the reproaches
which Ahikar pronounces over his nephew has also undergone
a good deal of mutation. The Slavonic Nagubil has a primitive
appearance, especially when we compare it with the biblical
Abednego which is supposed to stand for ‘servant of Nebo’; and
the suggested equivalence of Nego and Nebo is confirmed by the
Arabic readings Nebubel and Nabuhal.
In Armenian he appears as béliar.
We have, however, the suspicion that here also the name
of the Assyrian deity is involved.
(vi) The two boys who are trained to ride on eagles and
build a castle in the air are called in Arabic copies Nabuhail
1 p. 177, and ef. Lidzbarski, p. 13 note.
INTRODUCTION XXXVil
and Tabshalom; other copies omit them. The Syriac (S,) has
Ubael and Tabshalam. In the Armenian they are absent and
so in the Slavonic. Of these names the first seems to be
added on the hypothesis that it is one of the flying boys that
is set to watch Nadan. The second name is also suspect, as
not belonging to the original draft of the story. For it appears
to be borrowed from the Arabic version of the stories of Kalilah
and Dimnah, where it has the form Dabshalim, and although the
name has a Semitic cast, it is-of Indian origin. It appears in
the Syriac Kalilah as Dabsharam, and Benfey has conjectured that
this goes back to a Sanskrit Devagarman?. Burton, also, was
struck by the similarity of these forms, and says ‘The sound bears
a suspicious resemblance to Dabshalim in c. 1 of the fables of
Pilpay (.e. Kalilah and Dimnah?).’
It is, of course, quite conceivable that the episode of the
flying boys may belong to the later developments of the story.
(vii) The Cambridge Syriac gives a name to the slave who
is executed in the place of Ahikar; he is called Manziphar.
The Armenian gives this as Seniphar. The meaning of the name
is not clear, nor is it certain that it is primitive.
On reviewing these proper names, we shall be struck by the
prominence of Assyrian influence, especially in the recurrence
of the name Nebo. It is even possible that to the instances
given above we should add Nadan as a worn down form of
Nabudan. And the occurrence of such Assyriasms is the more
remarkable in view of the fact that in Tobit all the names, or
almost all, are compounds of El and Yah. We have also in
Ahikar some significant allusions to the great god Bel, which
should be set side by side with the references to Nebo.
It may be asked, What are the actual deities referred to in
Ahikar? In spite of the suggestion of Tobit that Ahikar is a
relation of his, and therefore, presumably, a Jew, the suspicion
which arises from the comparison of the versions inter se is that
1 See Keith-Falconer, Book of Kalilah and Dimnah, pp. 270, 271.
2 See Burton, p. 17.
XXXVI INTRODUCTION
he is a polytheist: and that, just as the later forms of the story
have reformed its revengeful ethics, so they have improved the
theology of its hero.
We find that in the Arabic version, the sage consults as-
trologers, wizards and Icarned men, with regard to his childless
condition, and is directed to pray to the gods. No special gods
are named, but when we turn to the Armemian text we find
that Ahikar ‘enters to the gods with many offerings, lights a
fire, and casts incense thereon and presents offerings and sacrifices
victims.’ Then he kneels down and prays to the gods, as follows:
‘O my lords, Belshim and Shimel and Shamin, command
and give me male seed.’
Here it certamly appears as if there had been revision, on the
part of the Syriac, in the interests of monotheism. The names,
however, in the Armenian are perplexing: they do not seem to
be bona-fide Assyrian deities, in spite of the appearance of Bel
in composition. And this is the more remarkable because, in
the Egyptian episodes, which one would be tempted on some
accounts to regard as later developments, the Assyrian Bel is
not only mentioned, but he is also very well defined.
Thus we find in the Arabic that Haikar compared his master
Sennacherib to the God of Heaven! (having previously compared
Pharaoh and his nobles to Bel and his priests, and to the month
of Nisan and its flowers). He (the God of Heaven) has power
to prevent Bel and his nobles from going through the streets
and sends storms which destroy the glory of Nisan. Lidzbarski
has suggested that we have here an allusion to the procession
of the statues of Bel and the other gods on the Assyrian New
Year's Day: an event which is commonly recorded on the Assyrian
monuments, and in unauspicious times appears in the form ‘Bel
came not forth.’ If this allusion is rightly recognised, the matter
must be early, and this part of the Egyptian episode is justified.
1 [The title ‘God of Heaven’ is found in the book of Nehemiah, and we find it
confirmed in the contemporary petition from Elephantiné, sent by Jedoniah and his
companions to Bagoas the Persian governor. ]
INTRODUCTION XXXI1X
It has an earlier flavour than most of the Biblical apocryphal
allusions, and is so far removed from the puerilities of ‘ Bel and
the Dragon’ as to deserve to be assigned to an earlier date.
One must not, however, assume of necessity that the allusions
belong to the time of Nineveh or of Babylon. Bel and Nebo
may occur at a much later date than that to which we refer
the composition of the legend. Such names might be introduced
by a story-teller, who knew the worship of Bel and Nebo as it
continued to exist long after the fall of the great Mesopotamian
monarchies.
Thus we find in the Doctrine of Addai that the people of
Edessa were converted to Christianity from the worship of Bel
and Nebo; eg. p. 23, ‘Who is this Nebo, an idol which ye
worship, and Bel whom ye honour??’ p. 32, ‘They threw down
the altars upon which they sacrificed before Nebo and Bel their
gods’; p. 48, ‘Even the priests of Bel and Nebo divided with
them the honour at all times.’ It seems to be admitted in this
composition that the worship of Bel and Nebo had not been
wholly expelled from Edessa by Christianity‘.
Still, on the whole, there are allusions in the story of Ahikar
to Assyrian deities, which seem to have an early form and to
betray a close acquaintance with Ninevite worship. The diffi-
culty is in explaining the Armenian names; for we have in the
two places to which reference has been made, in the account
of Ahikar’s Egyptian visit, the following contrasts:
(a) |
Syriac. Arabic. Armenian.
Bel. The ido! Bel. The dig (or daemons).
(0)
(Erased.) The god of heaven. Belshim.
1 The New Testament, also, has an allusion to Nebo in the name of Barnabas,
and makes a spiritual translation of the name to suit the new faith.
[The references to Bel and Nebo in the Doctrine of Addai can be paralleled from
the Acts of Sharbil: ‘ All the gods were brought together and decorated and set up
in honour, both Nebo and Bel, together with their companions.’ The very name
of Sharbil eucloses that of the deity, just as the name of Baruabas does.]
xl INTRODUCTION
Perhaps the confusion arises from the removal of the name of
Bel, and the substitution of some more general or more orthodox
name; is it possible that Belshim arises out of an attempt to
correct Bel into ‘Lord of Heaven’? If so, we should have to
restore the name of Bel in two places in the Armenian, and this
would also have the effect of restoring it in the Syriac and Arabic
parallels. The story would, then, be definitely polytheistic, not
only in the Egyptian episode, but from the very commencement ;
and we should have a better reason for the non-canonisation of
the story than the imperfection of its ethics. But even if, as
seems probable, Belshim be allowed to stand in the second passage
of the Armenian, and be equated with the ‘ god of heaven,’ there
is still a polytheistic element left in each of the versions in the
first of the passages referred to: nor is it easy to see how the
charge of polytheism is altogether to be evaded.
CHAPTER IV
OF CERTAIN OBSCURE ALLUSIONS TO AHIKAR 1N
GREEK LITERATURE
WE now propose to enquire whether anything is known of
Ahikar in Greek literature, and whether such allusions to him
as can be detected imply a knowledge of the legend.
The most important passage is undoubtedly one in Clement
of Alexandna, who tells us that the Greek philosopher Demo-
critus had made a study of the Babylonian ethics, and had
incorporated with his own writings a translation of the pillar
of Akikar. As the passage is generally understood, Clement
is taken to say that we can convict Democritus of plagiarism by
observing the way in which he prefixes ‘thus saith Democritus’
to his own writings: meaning, as I suppose, that the appropriated
matter can be isolated from Democritus’ own ethical collections.
He goes on to speak of Democritus’ pnde over his travels and
his visits to Babylon, Persia and Egypt. In these travels he
came across and translated ‘the pillar of Akikar.’ But here is
the passage itself for reference’:
Anpoxpsros yap Tovs BaBurAwvious AOyous HOtKods wemointas.
NéyeTas yap tHv “Aktxapov oTHAnV EppnvevOeicay, Tois
idiows ovvtdEar auyypaupact. KdoTtiv émionunvacbar Tap
+ nm t / / ; 2 ‘ 4 s \
avtod, Tade Néyes Anpuoxpttos, ypadovtos: Kat py Kab rept
a U \ “ ,
avrod, 7 cepyuvopmevos Pyot Tov eri TH Todvpalia.
1 Clem. Alex. 1 Strom. ed. Potter, 1. 356.
xlil INTRODUCTION
Now it is not easy to find out what Clement means by this.
How could Democritus have made Babylonian discourses? And
who is Akikar from whose pillar he translated and stole ? And
how is the composition or transference of the ethical discourses
indicated by Democritus ?
It seems clear from the whole trend of Clement's argument
on the theft from barbarian philosophers by the Greeks, whom
a wise man described to Solon as ‘aye children, that he is
charging Democritus as well as Solon and Pythagoras with appro-
priating the ideas and language of other races and teachers.
But can weroimtas bear this meaning? It is not easy to
admit that it can. It therefore seems to us that, (if we do
not emend to weperroetrat), either 7@cxovs is an error of the
text for (ducovs, or that some word like (iSscovs has dropped
out after 7@ccovs. So that it means ‘Democritus has made the
Babylonian [ethic] treatises [his own],’ for he imcorporates the
column of Akikar with his own writings and prefixes the words
‘Thus saith Democritus. Such a proceeding is certainly ‘flat
burglary,’ to be classed along with the Greek thefts from Moses.
The objection to this reconstruction of the passage! would
seem to lie mm the fact that it has already been quoted by
Kusebius from Clement in the Praeparatio Hvangelica in the
words xai Anuoxpitos Se és wpdtepov Tois BaBSuAwvious Aoyous
nOtkous metoinoOat rEyeTar?: so that the error would have to
be older than Eusebius. Probably we can overrule this objection
by admitting the antiquity of the error; and then we find that
we have made excellent sense of a difficult passage by the
suggested restoration. Since the writings of Democritus are
certainly ethical, we incline to believe that a word has dropped
after 7@:xovs. The sayings of Ahikar might well be described
as Adyor BaBvdAwrios HOtxoi, and then we identify readily the
Akikar of Clement with the hero of our legend.
1 T see that my suggestion has been in part anticipated by Cobet, who proposes
to replace 76txovs by ldlous.
2 Gib. x. o. 4.
INTRODUCTION xlini
It is a remarkable fact that not only Clement, but also Theo-
phrastus and Strabo, seem to know something of a man or a
book which is in singular agreement with the name of the hero
of our tale. Thus Diogenes Laertius! tells us that Theophrastus
composed winter alia a book which is called ’Axiyapos: and Strabo
in recounting famous persons of antiquity who had ‘mantic’
gifts enumerates wapa tois Booropavois ’Ayaixapov. The names
are closely related to the name in the book of Tobit; and we are
inclined to think that they represent one and the same person,
and that the story and teaching of Ahikar had early penetrated
into Greece’.
But how, it will be asked, could so early a writer as Demo-
critus be thought to have borrowed ethical precepts from an
Assyrian sage, unless we were to assign an extraordinary antiquity
to Ahikar, and give a reality to the romance concerning him and
to his ethical precepts which is not warranted either by the
document itself or by the character of the Apocryphal products
with which it 1s associated ?
But the error in this case lies in the other direction, viz. in
taking Democritus too seriously. Of the writings which circulate
under his name, and of the sayings ascribed to him, many are
falsely inscribed. It was easy to refer ethical precepts to the
greatest of the Greek ethical teachers. We must not assume
that, because. Clement of Alexandria assigns a work to Demo-
critus, he was necessarily responsible. for it. All that we are
1 Lib. v,..¢. 50,
2 It will be objected (a) that Boozopavos is not » proper description for Abikar :
(b) that there is no mention of any pillar npon which his sayings were inscribed, in
any of the versions that have come to light. The force of these objections may
be diminished by remarking, (a) that Boomopavois is probably corrupt, (b) that
althongh there is no mention of any pillar in the eastern forms of the story, the
Aesop legends represent king Lykéros as ordering a golden statne to he erected to
Aesop, and they also say that after Aesop had been killed by the Delphians, the
oracle required them to propitiate the gods by setting up a pillar to his memory
(ornAny dvésryoay).
[The objection (a) is sustained, for, as Frankel suggests in Pauly-Wissowa, s.v.
Borsippa, we should read Bopoirryvés and regard Ahikar as a genuine Babylonian
from Borsippa.]
xliv INTRODUCTION
entitled to say is that certain works, especially collections of
gnomic sayings, passed under his name. Clement, indeed, may
affirm that amongst these sayings are certain passages taken
by Democritus from the column of Ahikar, but that is merely
Clement’s criticism of the work.
In any case the modern philosophical writers do not regard
the ethical work referred to by Clement as a genuine work of
Democritus. Natorp, who is the best editor of the Democritean
Fragments, says of the book in question that it 1s certaimly not
genuine, and he refers for confirmation to Miiller, who in his
Fragments of Greek Hvstorvans had expressed a similar view.
There is, therefore, no reason why the question of the relative
dates of Democritus and Ahikar should preclude us from iden-
tifying the hero of our legend with the wniter on ethics to whom
Clement, Strabo and Theophrastus refer. Ahikar is certainly,
for the ancient world, a great teacher of ethics. As a result of
the increasing intercourse between East and West, his precepts
as well as his story penetrated into Greece. All that we really
want is a little more evidence that sayings like his passed
current in Greek collections, and that there are traces of their
circulation under the name of Democritus.
In this direction, our first inspection of the Greek gnomic
collections, and of Democritus in particular, is likely to be dis-
appointing, for the sayings of Ahikar are Biblical in character and
Semitic im tone, whilst those of Democritus are fundamentally
Greek. But a little closer study finds some curious points of
contact between the two systems.
We observe that Democritus frequently appears in collections
of gnomic sayings as Democrates, and that, from similarity m the
names, the latter often appears in the form Socrates’.
In the Aethiopic Book of the Wise Philosophers we have a
collection of sayings, translated from the Arabic into the Aethiopic,
1 e.g, Cornill’s Book of the Wise Philosophers from the Aethiopic contains an
unknown Greek (?) proverb, which in his Frankfort Codex is ascribed to Socrates,
but in the Tiibingen copy to Demokrates: see Cornill, p. 34.
INTRODUCTION xlv
with names of authors attached. This Arabic collection is based
either wholly or in part upon a Syriac collection which underlies
it. For it opens with a long preface, of which the first words
are :
‘In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful, in
whom is our confidence and our help, we begin with the
help of our Lord Jesus Christ to write the book of the
wise philosophers ete.’
Here it is easy to see that a Moslem formula has been
superposed upon the common preface of the Syrian scribes, as it
occurs in hosts of Mss.; the collection is, therefore, either wholly
or in part, from a Syriac base.
Amongst the sayings we find fifteen sayings of Ahikar to
Nadan, which the reader will find printed below: they agree
closely with those in the edited stories and may all be accepted as
belonging to the ethics of Ahikar.
The second of these sayings will be found ascribed to De-
mocrates in Shahrestani?.
The thirteenth of the sayings runs as follows: ‘It is better to
stumble with the foot, than with the tongue; and do not utter
any discourse with thy tongue before thou hast taken counsel
with thyself.’ The first half of the saying is ascribed to Socrates
in the collections of Maximus?.
It is not improbable that the saying has found its way into
the Parallels of Maximus from a Democritean collection. But as
it occurs in the sayings of Ahikar, in Ethiopic and in Syriac, in
Arabic and Slavonic, we have a suspicion that there is a coincident
ascription of the saying both to Democritus and to Ahikar, and
1 Kd. Cureton, p. 306, the proverb in question being, ‘the tail of a dog gives
him meat, his voice gets him blows.’
2 No. 940. In the collection of Pearls of Rabbi Solomon Ibn Gabirol, the
saying is given in an anonymous form, as follows:
No. 357. ‘He was wont to say, A slip of the tongue is more dangerous than the
slip of the foot, for the slip of the tongue may cost thy head, whilst the slip of the
foot may easily be cured.’
[We shall see presently, when we come to discuss Smend’s criticisms, that there
are a number of further coincidences with Shahrestani.]
xIvi INTRODUCTION
that in the proverbial wisdom of the latter it 1s one of the
primitive elements.
While, then, we have not sufficient evidence to decide finally
the question of Democritean thefts from Ahikar, enough has been
said to establish some probability that Clement of Alexandria did
actually refer to sayings of Ahikar, which he found paralleled in a
pseudo-Democritean collection. The supposition has the merit of
simplicity and explains most of the obscure allusions in the Greek
writers referred to above.
But this must not be taken as suggesting that Ahikar was
a real person. The circulation of the story in which he is the
leading figure, and the separate circulation, of his maxims, are
sufficient to explain his celebrity. He is as substantial as Tobit,
but not more so; the two creations stand or fall, historically,
together,
Origen, also, seems to have. known something about Ahikar,
though we are not able to affirm that his allusions go beyond the
references in Tobit. In his famous letter to Africanus, on the
question of the canonicity of. the story of Susanna, in reply to
critical objections made by Africanus, he urges that the captive
Jews may really have become wealthy and influential, as they are
represented to be in Susanna, for we have the paralle) cases of
Tobit and Achiacar. Here he seems to be referring to the book
of Tobit. The question, however, will arise, whether in the context
he betrays any knowledge of Ahikar outside the book of ‘Tobit ?
I think not. Yet it is certainly curious that, a little earlier in his
argument, he tries to explain the punishment of the Unfaithful
Servant in the Gospel (which we shall presently show to have
been influenced by Ahikar), with its perplexing dsyoropjce
avrov, and says that this punishment is inflicted by angels in the
next world. As we shall see it is this very story in the Gospel
that is so remarkably illustrated by the Ahikar legend. But
Origen appears to have been led to it by the language in Susanna
(cxicer ce), and not by any reflection upon the coincidences
between Ahikar and in the New Testament. We cannot, then,
INTRODUCTION xlvil
affirm that the knowledge of Ahikar which Origen had goes
beyond that which is contained in the book of Tobit.
Before leaving this part of the subject, we draw attention to
two further references to Ahikar, one from the West, and the
other from the East. The first consists of certain allusions in the
recently published Miscellanea Casinese. The passage occurs in a
tract entitled Inventiones nominum from a St Gall codex, No. 130
(Saee. vili.).
Duo sunt Nadab, unus est Nadab filius Aaron, alius Nadab
Tubia qui vivum obruit Achia Caronenm qui se nutrierat.
Correct the text to Nadab in Tubia (cf. Azaria in Tubia which
occurs a little later); and for Achia Caroneum read Achiacarum
eum. There is nothing in this passage that goes beyond the book
of Tobit, and it is to Tobit that the writer expressly refers. The
Latin of Tobit actually has wvwm deduait and qui eum nutrivit.
Tt does not, therefore, appear that any fresh source of information
has been combined with the book of Tobit*.
The Eastern reference is in the Lexicon of Bar Bahlul, and
does not seem to depend directly upon Tobit, but upon the
Syriac and Arabic version of Ahikar. <A copy of this lexicon
in my possession contains not only the ordinary Syriac and
Arabic glosses, with some added ones, but it has also a series of
Armenian glosses in Syriac characters. In this Ms. we have a
Syro-Armenian gloss to the effect that Ahikar (taser) is the
vizier of a king named Haikar (tas). Here the Syriac legend,
as well as the Arabic, has been drawn upon: as is shown by the
double spelling and by the allusion to his position as vizier to the
king.
We shall now pass on to discuss the relations between Ahikar
and the books of the Old and New Testaments.
1 [A reference should be made to the mosaic of Monnus at Tréves, where Ahikar
appears as a well-known sage: the restoration Acicarus from the legible ...icar... is
due to Studemund. See Jahrbuch des Kaiserl. Deutschen Archiol. Instituts, Bd. v.
1890, pp. 1~5. See also B. Lewis’ paper on the Mosaic of Monnus, p. 12, § v.]
2 This is the first ms. I have ever seen of Armenian written Syriacé.
CHAPTER V
OF THE STORY OF AHIKAR IN RELATION TO TOBIT
WE now proceed to examine how the legend of Ahikar stands
in relation to the books of the Old and New Testaments, so as to
give it its proper chronological position amongst them, and to
determine from what books, if any, 1t makes quotations, and by
what books it is itself quoted. We have in part anticipated this
enquiry in the discussion of its connexion with the book of Tobit.
Let us take up the thread of the argument again at this point.
The main reasons for assuming the priority of the story of
Ahikar to that of Tobit are, briefly, as follows.
It has been shown, by a study of the names, that the same
persons are intended in the two legends; and it is clear that the
allusions in Tobit to Ahikar and Nadan imply that the legend of
Ahikar was known to the author of Tobit, and the only question
is whether this legend was in its written form or in a traditional
and oral dress.
Now it is very difficult to see why Tobit should have thrust in
these allusions to Ahikar, which do not really affect his story and
are not involved in it by any link of necessity, unless the story
had been before the mind of the author of Tobit as a literary
model.
Does the placing of the two stories side by side justify us in
believing that one of them was the model of the other, and that
they are almost a pair of companion pictures ?
We may answer this question by pointing to the remarkable
INTRODUCTION xlix
parallels in structure in the two books and to cases in which
obscurities in Tobit are explained by the parallels in Ahikar.
Each story has a moral purpose (as all good stories ought to
have), Tobit serving to prove that almsgiving is one of the highest
virtues, and pays the highest dividend, while Ahikar is written to
show how evil comes to him that evil devises.
In the story of Tobit, the departure of the young man to go
to Media is made the opportunity for a little treatise on ethics:
the section begins c. v. 5, as follows:
‘All the days do thou remember the Lord our God; and
transgress not His commandments’
and it ends c. v. 19,
‘And now, my child, remember my commandments and let
them not be blotted out of thy heart.’
The parallel section in the ethics of Ahikar begins,
‘My son, listen to my speech, follow my opinion, and keep
my words in remembrance’.
The parallelism in the treatment is sufficiently evident. But
there is a closer parallel in the fact that there is common matter
in the two ethical sections referred to: we may compare
Tobit iv. 17 with Ahikar.
‘Pour out thy bread on the graves ‘My son, pour out thy wine on the
of the righteous, and do not giveitto graves of the righteous, rather than
sinners?’ drink it with evil or common men3,’
1 In the Armenian the injunction is at the end of the ethical tract as it is in
Tobit, and runs thus:
‘Son, receive into thy mind my precepts, and forget them not.’
In the Arabic it stands at the head of the section, as in the Syriac given
above :
‘O my son, hear my speech and follow my advice and remember what I say.’
2 A number of authorities for the text of Tobit have the advice in the form
‘Pour out thy bread and thy wine,’ which is perhaps an attempt to correct the
incongruity in the language of Tobit. Ball suggests an original Hebrew, ‘ Portion
out (which might be misread pour out) thy bread and thy wine in the midst of the
righteous’; which restoration is condemned by the parallel in Ahikar.
3 The Armenian drops the reference to the ‘graves of the just,’ but the Syriac
and Arabic texts support it, and it must certainly be retained.
L, A. g
l INTRODUCTION
The comparison between the two texts shows the sense in
which Tobit is to be taken. The sentence in Tobit looks like a
senseless modification of the corresponding one in Ahikar. For
the word ‘pour out’ is not proper with ‘bread, though it 1s
justified by the parallel in Ahikar.
In the last words of Tobit, we find him telling his son that
Tob. xiv. 10. ‘Nadan went down into darkness. Manasses
(1. Ahikar] did alms and was saved from the snare of death
which Nadan laid for him. Nadan, however, fell into the
snare and perished.’
Turn back to Tobit’s famous and much-disputed ethical
precept:
Tob. iv. 10. ‘Alms doth deliver from death, and will not suffer
thee to come into darkness.’
_ A comparison between the two passages shows that the ethical
precept of Tobit 1s deduced from and confirmed by the experience
of Ahikar and Nadan. The keynote of the Tobit legend is found
already struck in that of Ahikar. Thus the intimate connexion
between the two books is brought out. The ethics of Tobit
presuppose the experience of Ahikar, just as we have shown above
that they presuppose his teaching’,
Perhaps it will be objected at this point that there 1s no reason
for Tobit’s crediting the good Ahikar with the virtue, the saving
virtue, of almsgiving, when the extant legends of Ahikar say
nothing on the point.
If the omission in the romance of the detail which Tobit
suggests were really established, one thing would at all events be
clear, viz. that Ahikar was not written to explain the allusions in
Tobit: for in that case the leading sentiment in the book has been
neglected. So that we should not have banished the theory of
the priority of Ahikar by granting the fact of the omission
referred to. It could still be held that the prominence which is
given to the virtue of almsgiving in Tobit has been artificially
1 The argument of Tobit that ‘alms deliver from death and darkness’ becomes
generalised in Sirach xxix. 12, ‘ Alms...shall deliver thee from all affliction.’
INTRODUCTION li
projected back upon the earlier story, and the doctrine of charity
has been made the link between the two compositions. Such
literary artifices are common enough and would suffice to explain
the apparent omission in what is suspected to be an earlier
document.
But is it so certain that there is no reference to almsgiving in
Ahikar? The allusions of Tobit to his story contain a number of
details which are evidently parts of a well-established tradition.
‘Remember how Nadab handled Ahikar, &c. And it may be
questioned whether we have a right to detach the statements
concerning almsgiving and say of them that these are due to the
literary invention of Tobit while the remainder are taken from his
sources.
The true solution of the difficulty lies in the: denial of the
preliminary assumption that there is no mention of almsgiving in
Ahikar. May not almsgiving have been replaced by some other
term? The students of the New Testament are aware of the
confusion which exists in the early texts of the Gospel over the
word éXenoovvy ; such, for instance, as gives rise to the variation
in Matt. vi. 1 where éAenuoovvyn is the equivalent of an Aramaic
mpTy (= alms or righteousness).
Now in the Old Testament it is only slowly that the equiva-
lence of alms and righteousness becomes sensible. It may be
detected, however, in Ps. exii. 4, ‘He is gracious and full of com-
passion and righteous,’ i.e. charitable. And in the book of Daniel
(which belongs to the same period as the two romances which we
are discussing)? we have the perfect equivalence, ‘ Break off thy
sins by righteousness and thy iniquity by showing mercy to the
poor. And we cannot say that the Greek translation of Mp by
éXenpoovrn belongs to a later age than that of Tobit, seeing that
the rendering is found in the Septuagint, in the Pentateuch, which
is probably as old as Tobit itself. And in the text of Tobit we
have the convincing proof that éXenpnocuvy really means alms, as
4 [Ahikar rmoust be older than Tobit and Daniel, if we may judge from the
Elephantiné papyrus.]
li INTRODUCTION
in such passages as ‘Give alms of thy substance’ iv. 7; ‘If thou
hast abundance, give alms accordingly’ iv. 8; ‘Alms is a good
gift’ iv. 11; ‘It is better to give alms than to lay up gold’ xu. 8
(which verse immediately precedes the statement that ‘alms doth
deliver from death’). In Tobit, therefore, we have, in all probability,
an equivalence between the primitive mts and éXNenuoavyn’.
The equivalence being established, we have now to examine
whether in any passage of Ahikar there is a suggestion of a
confusion between ‘righteousness’ and ‘alms.’
The Syriac tells us as follows:
‘My son, I set thee upon the seat of honour; and thou hast
dragged me down from my seat; but as forme my righteous-
ness (;Raires) saved me.’
And again :
‘My son...thou didst beat my servants who had not done
foolishly: and according as God kept me alive on account of
my righteousness (shar), so he will destroy thee on
account of thy deeds.’
We have only to imagine that this translation is meant to
represent a Hebrew mp and then we have the complete ex-
planation of what Tobit meant in his references to Ahikar; and
we may be confident, mm view of the proved consanguinity and
contemporaneity of the two stories, that Tobit has given the nght
interpretation.
The parallel between ‘alms doth deliver from death’ and ‘God
kept me alive on account of my almsgiving’ would be so close that
there would be no residual obscurity in Tobit’s references.
If further proofs were wanted of the literary parallelism
? Once or twice in Tobit, We actually have a double translation of the original
Hebrew : e.g. xi. 9, of rocodvres éXenuocivas kal Sixatoctvas; and ef, xiv. 11, {Sere ri
ehenuooivy tovet Kal dtxatocdvy pverar: where, if the text be right, there should be a
strong stop after dexacocivy. Cf. also Tob. ii. 14, rod elow al édenpootyat cov kal al
OLKALOTUVaL TOV;
[Proverbs xi. 4 appears to be conclusive in favour of the foregoing explanation:
‘Riches shall not avail in the day of wrath, but righteousness (PTY) shall deliver
from death’: observe the parallelism.]
INTRODUCTION lili
between the two stories, we might draw attention to the fact that
each of the two tales is an autobiography. ‘I Tobit’ is the
nucleus of one tale, ‘I Ahikar’ of the other. Some of the forms
of the latter story obliterate the peculiarity, but 1t can readily be
restored by a comparison of the different versions.
At the close of the book of Tobit the story adds a hymn of
praise which Tobit wrote (éypayev mpocevyyv), and this, with
some ethical advices from Raphael the angel, and a few supple-
mentary counsels of father to son, ends the book.
At the close of Ahikar, we have a series of anathemas on
Nadan, which are also to be committed to writing; ‘ Write every
word that I shall say to the foolish Nadan. The parallelism is
not, however, so close at this point as might have been expected.
It is characteristic of compositions of this kind to insert a psalm
or a prayer or an ethical tract; such parts of the story need not be
original, provided that they can be handled so as to be picturesque.
Compare, for example, Jonah’s prayer in the belly of the fish,
(probably a psalm older than the book of Jonah,) or the Song of
the Three Children, which is a similar adaptation of earlier matter.
One desiderates something of the kind in Ahikar. There ought
to have been a prayer of Ahikar when he was in the pit, to match
Tobit’s prayer. It should have been, in structure, something like
one of the imprecatory Psalms. We shall see, presently, that
there are linguistic parallels between Ahikar and certain of the
Psalms, which go far to mvite the suggestion that an actual
prayer of Ahikar may possibly be extant in the Psalter. For the
present it is sufficient to say that 1t would add greatly to the
proved consanguinity of Tobit and Ahikar, if such a document
could be found and restored to the text.
Reviewing our examination of the literary structure of the
two books, we may say that we have proved them to be a pair of
companion pictures, and we have given a good many reasons for
believing that Ahikar is the earlier work of the two.
A residual difficulty lies in the apparent reference on the part
of Tobit to experiences of Ahikar which are not recorded in our
liv INTRODUCTION
recovered texts. Tobit says that, in his blindness, Ahikar main-
tained him until he went to Elymais. Dr Dillon suggests that
the Hebrew of Ahikar contained a word meaning ‘hiding-place ’
(nby = to hide), which has been misunderstood as the name of a
place. It certainly would be a much better reason why Ahikar
left off his care of Tobit, if he were in a hole underground, than
if he had merely gone on a journey from Nineveh to Elymais.
We may accept this explanation for the present.
1 At the same time I am not quite easy on the point. May not Ahikar have
taken a long journey, which may have been the first occasion on which Nadan
began to mishehave and to beat the men and the maids? It will be noted that the
Gospel, in a passage certainly inspired from the story of Ahikar, prefaces the
beating of men and maids by a statement of the absence of the lord of the house
on a journey and the assumption on the part of the wicked servant that his master
delays his return. If such an incident once formed a part of the earlier sections in
Ahikar, we might agree with Tobit in sending Ahikar to Elymais, and find one
more phrase caught up from the legend in the Gospel. But here, perhaps, we are
in the region of pure speculation. So, for the present, let Dr Dillon’s ingenious
explanation hold the field.
[The foregoing criticism has largely been justified by the discovery of the papyrus
fragments from Elephantiné, to which we give special attention later on. Certainly
the discovery of an Aramaic story of Ahikar in the fifth century before Christ
reverses entirely the judgment of those critics who laboured so hard to prove that
Ahikar was a late composition, inferior in date to Tobit. ]
CHAPTER VI
ON THE RELATION OF AHIKAR TO THE BOOKS OF THE OLD
AND NEW TESTAMENTS
ASSUMING then that the previous investigations have rightly
classed Tobit and Ahikar together, and have rightly given the
earlier place to the latter of the two books, we must examine
into the general relations that subsist between Ahikar and the
books of the Old and New Testaments. It is generally conceded
that the book of Tobit was written not later than 100 B.c., and
perhaps as early as 150 B.c. So that we can hardly place Ahikar
later than 150 B.c., and may have to set it even earlier. [Our
singularly modest claim for an early date of Ahikar looks almost
absurd in the light of the recovered papyrus: we asked for at least
the second century B.c. and have been rewarded with documentary
evidence of the fifth century!] What books would most likely
have influenced a legend produced at such a time and in such
a quarter? If we may judge from the case of Tobit the answer
would be readily given; for Tobit is under the influence of the
prophets. Amongst his references to them will be found direct
quotations from Amos, a direct allusion to Jonah’s prophecy over
Nineveh, and some passages on the future splendour of Jerusalem
which go back to Isaiah. It is curious to remark that in Ahikar
the coincidences are chiefly with the Wisdom books; the general
resemblance between the ethics of Ahikar and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
and Sirach has been observed by earlier students. The form into
which the ethical precepts are cast, each sentence of the teaching
beginning with a réxvoy pou, 1s the same as is found in Sirach, and
in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It is the old-world way
lvi INTRODUCTION
of teaching amongst the Jews. It will be a question whether, in
all the cases referred to, the borrowing is on the side of Ahikar.
In the case of coincidences with Sirach, for example, it 1s a question
whether the priority is not with Ahikar. Take, for instance, the
case referred to above, where Sirach teaches that ‘alms will deliver
from all affliction.’ The form is a modification of what we find in
Tobit, to the effect that alms delivers from death and darkness,
and these terms refer to the experience of Abikar.
What seems certain is that there is common matter in Sirach
and Ahikar. For instance, in Sir. iv. 26 we have pa Bialou povv
mwotapov, for which the Syriac of Sirach has ‘do not stand up
against a fool’: the cntics advise us to read, not 455, a fool, but
br, a river. In Ahikar we have the precept ‘not to stand
against a river in its fulness?’
More striking still is Sir. xxu. 14, 15,‘ What is heavier than
lead, and what is the name thereof, but a fool? Sand and salt
and a mass of iron is easier to bear, than a man without under-
standing’. This finds a parallel in Prov. xxvii. 3, ‘ A stone is heavy
and sand weighty: but a fool’s wrath is heavier than them both.’
But a much nearer parallel is found in Ahikar, who tells us, ‘ My
son, I have carried salt and have removed lead; and I have not
seen anything heavier than that a man should pay a debt that he
did not borrow. My son, I have carried iron and have removed
stones, and they were not so burdensome to me as a man who sits
in the house of his father-in-law.’ It is difficult to settle priority
in such cases: nor are we much helped by the parallels in the other
versions, besides the Syriac from which we quoted above. The
Armenian has, ‘Son, I have eaten endive and I have drunk gall,
and it was not more bitter than poverty. I have lifted salt and I
have lifted lead, and it was not heavier than is debt. I have
lifted iron and I have lifted stones upon my shoulders, and it was
1 [The parallels between Ahikar and Sirach will be found collected in Nau’s
edition. ]
* [As this saying is in the papyrus, in a closely-related form, we need not doubt
that it is a part of the original, and that Sirach has taken it from Ahikar.]
INTRODUCTION Ivil
better for me than to dwell with the ignorant and the foolish.’
Of this sentence the first part is preserved in the Arabic in the
form, ‘O my son! I have eaten a colocynth and swallowed myrrh,
and I have found nothing more bitter than poverty and scarcity’
But the latter part of the saying is wanting in the Arabic.
The Slavonic, however, preserves both parts in a somewhat
simpler form. It does not, then, seem likely that these sentences
have come into Ahikar through copyists: they must be primitive :
and the only question will be which of the two, Sirach and
Ahikar, has influenced the other. Perhaps it will be better to
leave the question open, until we have more light on the first
form of the sayings of Ahikar: he might reasonably object to our
laying on him the burden of a debt to Sirach which he did not
really owe. The parallelisms, however, should be carefully noted.
[Here again our editorial modesty has been abundantly re-
warded: for we have amongst the papyrus fragments sufficient
evidence to show that the sayings we have been discussing have
parallels in the fifth century document !]
A similar coincidence of thought and expression between
Ahikar and the book of Proverbs should also be remarked: most
of those who have written on Ahikar’s gnomie sayings have drawn
attention to it. This parallelism becomes peculiarly striking in
the closing words of Ahikar’s teaching. For at this point we
appear to strike a fresh stratum of sayings: the- text contains
sentences in the manner of the prophecy of Agur in Prov. xxx.,
in which the characters, persons and things are arranged in
numerical groups: e.g. in Prov. xxx. 21, ‘For three things the
earth is disquieted and for four which it cannot bear’: and Prov.
xxx. 24, ‘There be four things which are little upon the earth,
but they are exceeding wise, &c.’ Compare with this the follow-
ing sentences from the Cambridge Syriac: ‘There are four things
together, which no king can stand’...; ‘there are four which
cannot remain hidden.’
1 The exchange of myrrh and gall can be illustrated from the Gospels.
L. A. h
lvill1 INTRODUCTION
These sentences do not occur in the Armenian, but in the
place of them we find a number of similar groups such as, ‘ Four
things increase the light to men’s eyes’: ‘ four things bring tears to
the eyes’: ‘four things improve a man’s banquet’: and what is
remarkable in these groups is that they are expressly said, in the
Armenian, to be taken from a separate collection, entitled
‘The questions of the king’s sons and the answers of Khikar.’
The king’s sons are named, they are Houday and Baliayn, and
here we are able to throw light upon the mysterious Ithiel and
Ucal, who are spoken of in Prov. xxx., to whom Agur addressed
his epigrams. Evidently they are two inquisitive young gentle-
men, who serve to bring out the wisdom of the sage and are
probably a king’s sons. Viewed in this hght, we can get nd of
some of the perplexities which ancient and modern translators and
commentators have found in the passage. Agur himself is a kind
of double of Ahikar, and the compositions referred to may be
classed together. It seems likely, then, that the extant versions
of Ahikar present us with fragments from more extended col-
lections. And of the consanguinity of such collections with the
Biblical Proverbs there can be no doubt?,
Another difficult question is the connexion between Ahikar
and certain of the Psalms. In the present day, when the Psalter
is in process of critical disintegration, and its authorship is being
redistributed, we are able to apply a freer criticism to the matter
of the Psalms, and to allow a longer chronology to the whole
collection. David no longer divides the authorship with Moses
and Asaph. There is, therefore, nothing unreasonable in a sug-
gestion made above that amongst the Psalms there may be a lost
Psalm or prayer of Ahikar. We are, to be sure, in the region of
pure conjecture, and all that we can say with certainty is that
* Jerome takes Agur to be the equivalent of compiler, and renders the word
‘Congregans.’ If we could only he sure that he was right, we could use the
interpretation of Hebrew names, which makes the same translation for Asaph.
We should then be able to connect Agur and Asaph together, as we shall
presently be obliged to do with Ahikar and Asaph. But this is again mere specu-
lation.
INTRODUCTION lix
there are a number of Psalms, of a vindictive type, which are
singularly appropriate to the condition of Ahikar in the pit, and
one or two which are curiously coincident with his language in
the legend. that has come down to us. And these coincidences,
while they do not suffice for more than suggestions of the literary
fitness in the story of a Psalm or prayer of the distressed sage,
are abundantly sufficient to prove the Hebraistic character of the
original document from which our extant versions are derived.
So that we gain something, even by the perilous practice of
speculating.
The best way of studying the parallels in thought and lan-
guage between Ahikar and the Psalms, is to take a special Psalm,
say the 141st, and read it im the light of the recovered legend.
We may compare as follows:
Psalm cxli. 4.
‘Incline not my heart to any evil
Ahikar.
‘QO my son, be not neighbour to
thing, to practise wicked works with
men that work iniquity, and let me
not eat of their dainties.’
Psalm exh. 5.
‘Let the righteous smite me: it
shall be a kindness: and let him
reprove me: it shall be an excellent
oil which shall not break my head.’
the fool, and eat not bread with
him.’
Ahikar.
‘O my son, let the wise man beat
thee with a rod: but let not the fool
anoint thee with sweet salve.’
or comparing the text of the LXX.,
‘The righteous shall chastise me
in mercy, and confute me: but let
not the oil of sinners anoint my head.’
Psalm exli. 10.
‘Let the wicked fall into their own
nets, whilst that I withal escape.’
Ahikar.
‘For he who digs a pit for his
brother shal] fall into it; and he
who sets traps shall be caught in
them.’
Whether, then, the Psalms contain an actual memorial of
Ahikar or not, the coincidences in thought and expression are a
very strong argument for a helief m the original Hebrew structure
of the story.
Ix INTRODUCTION
We will now leave the discussion of the connexion between
the legend of Ahikar and the Wisdom books and the Psalms,
having established that there is between them a good deal of
common matter and a good deal of similar expression. We turn
now to a book which appears to belong to the same time and to
the same region as Ahikar, in search of more exact coincidences.
We refer to the book of Daniel.
First of all there are a good many expressions describing
Assyrian life, which appear also in Danie] and may be a part of
the stock-in-trade of an Eastern story-teller in ancient times. I
mean such expressions as, ‘O king, live for ever!’ ‘I clad him in
byssus and purple; and a gold collar did I bind around his neck.’
(Armenian, p. 25, cf. Dan. v. 16.) More exact likeness of speech
will be found in the following sentence from the Arabic version, in
which Ahikar is warned by the ‘magicians, astrologers and sooth-
sayers’ that he will have no child. Something of the same kind
occurs in the Arabic text, when the king of Egypt sends his
threatening letter to the king of Assyria, and the latter gathers
together his ‘nobles, philosophers, and wise men, and astrologers.’
The Slavonic drops all this and says, ‘It was revealed to me by
God, no child will be born of thee. ‘He caused all the wise men
to be gathered together.’ In the Armenian it is, ‘there was a
voice from the gods’; ‘he sent and mustered the satraps.’ ‘The
language, however, in the Arabic recalls certain expressions in
Daniel: e.g.
Dan. 11. 2. ‘The king sent to call the magicians, the astrologers,
the sorcerers and the Chaldeans.’
So in Dan. ii. 27: in Dan. v. 7, ‘astrologers, Chaldeans, and
soothsayers, Sc.
It will be seen that the expressions in Daniel are closely
parallel to those in the Arabic Ahikar.
Again, when the king of Assyria is in perplexity as to what
he shall answer to the king of Egypt, he demands advice from
Nadan who has succeeded to his uncle’s place in the kingdom.
Nadan ridicules the demands of the Pharaoh. ‘Build a castle in
INTRODUCTION lxi
the air! The gods themselves cannot do this, let alone men!’
We naturally compare the reply of the consulted Chaldeans in
Daniel i1. 11, ‘There is no one who can answer the matter before
the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.’
When Abikar is brought out of his hiding-place and presented
to the king, we are told that his hair had grown very long and
reached his shoulders, while his beard had grown to his breast.
‘My nails,’ he says, ‘ were like the claws of eagles and my body had
become withered and shapeless.’
We compare the account of Nebuchadnezzar, after he had
been driven from amongst men (see iv. 30); ‘until his hairs were
grown like eagles’ [feathers] and his nails like birds’ [claws].’
man pqwaa ayy Ty
+ PBS TED
The parallelism between these passages is tolerably certain ;
and the text in Ahikar is better than that of Daniel. The growth
of the nails must be expressed in terms of eagles’ talons, and not
of the claws of little birds: and the hair ought to be compared
with wild beasts, as is the case in some of the Ahikar versions.
There are also some curious .linguistic parallels between
Ahikar and Daniel, which will be noted later on.
It seems, then, to be highly probable that one of the writers
im question was acquainted with the other; for it is out of the
question to refer all these coincidences to a later perturbation in
the text of Ahikar from the influence of the Bible. Some, at
least, of them must be primitive coincidences. But in referring
such coincidences to the first form of Ahikar, we have lighted
upon a pretty problem. For one of the formulae in question, that
nainely which describes the collective wisdom of the Babylonians,
is held by modern critics to be one of the proofs of late date in the
book of Daniel:
Accordingly Sayce says’, ‘ Besides the proper names [in Daniel]
there is another note of late date. “The Chaldeans” are coupled
1 Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 533.
Lxil INTRODUCTION
with the “magicians,” the “astrologers” and the “sorcerers,” just as
they are in Horace or other classical writers of a similar age. The
Hebrew and Aramaic equivalent of the Greek or Latin “Chaldeans”
is Kasdim (Kasdayin), a name the origin of which 1s still uncertain.
But its application in the earlier books of the Bible is well known.
It denoted the Semitic Babylonians....After the fall of the Baby-
lonian empire the word Chaldean gradually assumed a new meaning
...1t became the equivalent of “sorcerer” and magician.... In the
eyes of the Assyriologist the use of the word Kasdim in the book
of Daniel would alone be sufficient to indicate the date of the
work with unerring certainty.’
Now it 1s certainly an interesting fact that in the story of
Ahikar the perplexmg Chaldeans are absent from the enumeration.
This confirms us in a suspicion that Ahikar has not been borrow-
ing from Daniel, either in the first form of the legend or in later
versions. For if he had been copying into his text a passage
from Daniel to heighten the narrative, why should he omit the
Chaldeans? The author had not, certainly, been reading Prof.
Sayce’s proof that they were an anachronism. The hypothesis is,
therefore, invited that in Ahikar we have a prior document to
Daniel: but we will not press the argument unduly, because we
are not quite certain as to the text of the primitive Ahikar’.
And now let us leave the Old Testament, and pass on to the
coincidences between Ahikar and the New Testament. It has
been already remarked that there is a suggestion of an acquaint-
ance with the story of Ahikar in the parable of the wicked
servant. I believe it was Dr James who first drew attention to
this point?. He expresses himself to the following effect:
‘Our Lord’s parable of the wicked servant who begins to be
drunken and to beat the servants, and is finally “cut in sunder” by
his master on his sudden return (Matt. xxiv. 48), finds a striking
1 Also we are not blind to the fact that the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge has hung a Damocles sword over all who meddle with the Daniel-
problem, In a foot-note attached to the xith chapter of Prof. Sayce’s book, we
are informed that ‘some of Prof. Sayce’s views are not shared by other authorities’ !
2 Apocrypha Anecdota, it. p. 158, note 1.
INTRODUCTION Ixiii
parallel in the career of Nadan, the nephew of Achikar. This
young man, we read, when he had treacherously got rid of his
uncle, gathered his disreputable friends together and began to
“eat and to drink,” and took the men-servants and maid-servants
and scourged and tormented them: and, finally, when Achikar
had unexpectedly emerged again, swelled up on a sudden and
burst. As the story was clearly popular and is also clearly
pre-Christian, it would be no strange thing if the parable had
borrowed a trait or two upon it.’
Now, if Dr James is right, as we do not doubt that he is, the
conclusion is capable of being expressed in a stronger form. It is
not the Parable that has borrowed, but the Parabolizer; and a
new volume has accordingly been added to our Lord’s library.
Morcover it is not a question of a trait or two. The whole idea
of the parable of the bad servant whose master unexpectedly
returns is borrowed from the legend of Ahikar, just as truly as the
sign of the prophet Jonah is appropriated in another oracular
passage. We might almost head the parable to which reference
has been made with the words, ‘The sign of the sage Ahikar.’
The coincidences, then, which have been noted by Dr James are
of the highest value.
And there really seems no doubt, in this case, that the
passage of Ahikar referred to belongs to the first form of the
story. The unexpected return of Ahikar (as if from the dead)
is necessary to the moral action of the drama and cannot be
omitted: the beating of the men and maids is two or three times
alluded to in the story. It is a fundamental thought of the
narrative. And the ‘eating and drinking with the drunken’ of
which the parable speaks has its exact parallel in the account
of Nadan’s. gathering worthless fellows togetber, who begin to
eat and drink and dance and sing. So we need have no hesi-
tation in making the parallels. The superior antiquity of the
legend to the parable comes out also in the punishment that
is meted out in the two cases. The form in the legend appears
to have been modified in the parable. The account as it stands
Ixiv
INTRODUCTION
in the Gospel is a part of the ‘double tradition’ of Matthew and
Luke.
(W. & H.).
Mt. xxiv. 48—51.
~ 5 al
’Eav 6€ clan 6 Kakos SovAas exeivos
al ~ 3
ev TH Kopdta avrov, Xpoviter pov o
, ?
Kvptos, kal dpEnra rurrey Tavs auvdav-
Aovs avrov, euOin S€ Kat wivy pera Tov
é red ¢ , ~ ?
peOvovrav, n&ew 6 Kuptos Tov Sovdou
€ -~
éxeivou év nuépa 7 ov mpoadoxa kal
< ,
év Spa 7 ov yev@oxet, kat Styorounoer
It stands as follows in
the edited Greek Testament
ee $
Lu. xii. 45, 46.
"Eav O€ etry 6 Sovdos exeivos ev rH
3 3 ~ rd ¢ LA f
kapdia avrov, Xpovites 6 xvpids prov
épxecOat, kai apénrartumrey rovs matdas
kai ras madickas, €oOiew re Kat mivery
4 7? cd ¢ , “~
kai peOvoxecOar, WEer d Kvpios tov
7 5 ¢ = ~
Sovdov exeivau ev nuepa 7} av mpocdoka
4 3 e < > 2 4 LA
Kal ey @pa7 ov yiwookel, kai OtyoTounoet
> b] 4 4 ? > ~ X ~ 3 4 ~ ~
aurav kat TO pépos avTov peta TOY avrdav kai TO pépos adrod pera rov
vmoxpirav Once’ exet EarardkdavOpes aricrav Onoe.
kal 6 Bovypos rev dddvrayr.
The two accounts clearly proceed from a common source. But
Luke is more true to the source than Matthew, for he has pre-
served the ‘young men and maidens’ from the Ahikar story,
instead of the less correct ‘fellow-servants.’
But what shall we say of the peculiar Svyotoujoe: which
certainly comes from the source? It looks as if we had here a
modification of the offensive details in the death of Nadan.
The story suggested the consequence ‘and he will split
asunder for burst]’: the Gospel modifies this to ‘and he will
split him asunder. The modification was probably an easy one
to make, though, when made, it has caused great perplexity to
commentators. It had probably already been made in the
common source from which Matthew and Luke derive.
The concluding part of the Parable sums up the punishment
of the wicked servant in the world, ‘and he will appoint him
his portion with the hypocrites (infidels). What this means is
clear from what follows in Matt., that ‘there will be wailing
and gnashing of teeth,’ 1e. Nadan goes into darkness. We may
compare a similar expression in Matt. xxv. 30 (cf. Matt. xxn. 13);
‘Cast the worthless servant to the outer dark;
There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’
And this agrees with Tobit’s version of the recompence of Nadan:
‘Nadan went down to darkness’ (Cod. B), which the Sinaitic
INTRODUCTION Ixv
Codex makes to be eternal darkness. It is probable that the
first form of the story contented itself with the statement that
Ahikar came out to the light, and Nadan went down to the
dark. The extant versions make the same eschatological ex-
pansion as the Tobit Mss., and certainly in our Lord’s time the
story was not limited in its denouement to the fact that Nadan
was thrown into a dark place and that he subsequently burst
asunder. So that if the first form wanted something in the
shape of future punishment, as distinct from present retribution,
the omission was rapidly repaired. Observe further that the
original story has certainly undergone contraction as well as
expansion; for the versions and later adaptations either modify
or get rid of the objectionable details of Nadan’s bursting asunder.
This theatrical proceeding is in itself a mark of early date. It
probably was a conventional ending for objectionable men and
animals: since we find that the dragon in Bel and the Dragon
dies in the same manner, and so does the poisonous snake in
one of the stories in the Acts of Thomas'. But the Abhikar
legends show that it had a tendency to disappear: the Slavonic
drops it entirely, no doubt because the details were offensive to
Greek readers. The Aesop story has also simplified the matter
of Nadan’s ending : one recension makes Ennos (Nadan) so smitten
in his conscience by the teaching of Aesop (Ahikar) that he dies
not many days after: (77 olxela cvvedyoes ola Tut Pédet TANYELS
tiv Wuynv, wer’ ob ToAaS Huépas Tov Biov peTHdrakev). Ac-
cording to another recension he is so smitten by remorse that
he hangs himself.
We have now shown that the parallel passages in the Gospel
to the Ahikar legends are so close as to imply an actual acquaint-
ance with the latter on the part of the former, and we have
_ 1 But in this case the parallel of the snake with Judas is suggested ; for he says
‘There was a great pit in the place where the poison of the snake fell. And Judas
Thomas commanded to fill up that place and make in it houses, as places of
entertainment for strangers.’ The language reminds one of Matthew, and the
bursting of the snake of Acts. .
2 So Benfey, Kleinere Schriften, p. 191, following Westermann’s text.
L. A,
Ixvi INTRODUCTION
found that the modification of the original story imvolved in
the Evangelical ‘cutting in sunder’ is only one out of a number
of similar attempts to get rid of the coarseness of the first form
of the legend.
But these statements with regard to the primitive form of the
account of Nadan’s death need a closer study on account of an
important parallel case in the New Testament.
As is well known, the story of the end of Judas Iscariot has
come down to us in a variety of forms. In the first place it is
not easy to reconcile the account in Matthew xxvii. 5 which ends
Kal ateXOwyv dmnyEato with the passage that is let into the middle
of Peter’s speech in Acts 1. 18, 19 (obros wév obv éext}caTo yapiov
éx ptcOot THs adiKias Kal TpnVAS yevdmevos éNanxnoev pécas, Kal
é£exv0n Travia Ta oThayyva avtov). Nor does this last passage
agree with the account of the purchase of the Field of Blood in
the Gospel. Then we have an extraordinary account from Papias
which relates how Judas swelled up to such an extent that he
could hardly walk about and was finally crushed by a passing
waggon which he was unable to avoid (apnodeis yap émi tocodTov
THY Gapka, wate pn SvvacGat StedOeiv, apakns padins sepyo-
pévns, UTo THs auakns émtécOn, WoTe Ta eyxaTa avToU éxKevw-
Ojvat). And this account is so opposed to that in the Gospel
and to that in the Acts of the Apostles, that even the most subtle
of harmonists would despair of finding a reconciliation. Nor is
it easy to see how Papias who gives such an account can be
credited with an acquaintance with the Gospel of Matthew. The
story, as Papias gives it, 1s in a certain sense apologetic: he 1s
explaining away a miracle, viz. the swelling up and bursting
asunder of Judas. The former is a gradual process, the latter
the result of an accident. Behind Judas there appears the figure
of the wicked Nadan. But if we imagine in the Acts of the
Apostles the awkward mpyvis yevoyevos replaced by mpyoGeis'
1 As in the Armenian and Georgian Versions and in the Arm. Comm, of Chry-
sostom (F. C. C.). [Dr Chase has recently made the interesting suggestion that
mpnvns does not mean pronus, but that it is exactly =mpyodels and is a medical term:
INTRODUCTION Ixvii
we have the same features, and the two accounts become closely
related. Moreover the account in Matthew is seen to be one
more attempt to get rid of the first form of the story, precisely
as in one of the lives of Aesop, in which Ennus is so smitten
by remorse that he hangs himself. The suggestion, therefore, is
offered that the original statement concerning the end of Judas
was to the effect that he swelled up and burst asunder. The
account of his death is an imitation of the death of Nadan.
And certainly the characters in question are sufficiently alike
to provoke a reaction from one story to the other. The in-
gratitude which is the cardinal sin of Nadan is also the worst
part of Judas’ treacherous conduct. As Strauss remarked in
dealing with the quotation from the Psalms, ‘He that eateth
bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me,’ ‘the expres-
sion “which doth eat of my bread” indicates a relation of de-
pendency, a bond of gratitude violated by the unfaithful friend,
and this certainly is as good a summary of conduct in one of the
cases before us as in the other. So we need not be surprised if
Ahikar should furnish the key to the genesis of the Judas legends.
There are several other places in the Gospels where a reference
to expressions in Ahikar has been detected, but they are largely
illusory. For instance, an attempt has been made to connect
Ahikar’s parable of the unfruitful tree planted by the water
with the denunciations of John the Baptist (‘Every tree that
bringeth not forth good fruit’ &c.), or with our Lord's parable
of the barren fig-tree. The latter reference is much nearer to
Ahikar than the former on account of the expressions ‘Its master
was firm to cut it down’...‘ Let me alone this year...If I do not
bear fruit, cut me down,’ and it is just possible that the supposed
references may justify us in inferring dependence upon the
Ahikar legend. Much more doubtful is the attempt made by
a writer in the Revue Biblique for Apr. 1898 to connect with
the ethics of Ahikar the remark of the Pharisee who entertained
in that case we have no need to emend the Greek; Papias is intelligible without
altering the text. ]
Ixvill INTRODUCTION
our Lord at the time when the sinful woman anointed him with
costly ointment. For it is said that the reason of the remark
‘This man, if he had been a prophet, would have known what
kind of woman touched him; for she is a sinner, lies in the
precept ‘Let the wise man beat thee with a rod, but let not
the fool [i.e. the sinner] anoint thee with sweet salve. The
suggestion that Simon the Pharisee had in his mind the precept
of Ahikar is ingenious enough, but it detracts from the natural-
ness of the conversation at the table. To assume an implied
expansion of Simon's remarks by the words ‘For it is written,
Let not the fool anoint thee with sweet salve’ would indeed
emphasise the respect in which Ahikar’s precepts were held, but
it would be at the expense of the simplicity of the story.
A much more likely case of transference will be found in one
of Ahikar’s parables which appears to be referred to in 2 Pet.
u. 22. The following reproach upon Nadan is found in the
Karshuni texts and with some modifications in the Armenian
and in the Syriac.
‘My son, thou hast behaved like the swine which went to
the bath with people of quality, and when he came out,
saw a stinking drain, and went and rolled himself in it.’
Here we find the explanation of the Petrine proverb,
bs Aoveapévn eis KvALopOv BopBopou,
where the parallel in Ahikar helps us to translate ts Aovcapévy
not as ‘the sow that was washed,’ but as ‘the sow that went to
the bath.’
The question will arise whether this parable of Ahikar is to
be credited to the first form of the story; and on this point
the following considerations are of importance :
(i) The parable is very appropriate to Nadan, who has been
well educated, but whose disposition is not changed.
(ii) The second epistle of Peter knows that it is a proverb,
‘a true proverb,’ and in these literatures proverbs are found in
collections. We have to allow for the early existence of some
INTRODUCTION lx1x
such parable as Ahikar’s bathed pig in order to explain the
allusion in 2 Peter.
(i11) Democritus who is charged by Clement with having
pilfered from Ahikar has something very like the same senti-
ment. For according to Clem. Alex. Protrept. p. 75 tes ydp
gnow ioovtas BopBope padAov } Kabape Hate «al eri popuTd
papyaivovot Kata Anuoxpttov.
But to this last point there is the objection that perhaps only
the second half of the sentence belongs to Democritus and that
the first half may be a popular proverb without an author’s name.
This view is confirmed by Plutarch, De Sanitate 14, where there
is a reference to
cuaiv émt hopyT@ papyavovaais, ws bn Anwoxpetos.
Upon the whole, there is something to be said for the antiquity
of the proverb, and for its adaptation from Ahikar into the
second epistle of Peter. And reviewing the cases of parallelism
in thought and language to which we have drawn attention, we
may say that the Ahikar legend is employed in the following
books of the Old and New Testaments, viz.
(a) ‘Tobit (certainly).
(8) Daniel (doubtfully).
(y) Parable of the Wicked Servant (certainly).
(5) In the Judas legends (Biblical and extra-Biblical) (pro-
bably).
(c) In the parable of the Barren Fig-tree (probably).
(¢) In the second epistle of Peter (certainly).
Other suggested references we have discarded. There are
perhaps a few other parallels in the New Testament to which
a certain degree of attention is due. Ahikar’s statement that
‘God is with the weak that he may astonish the strong’ should
be compared with 1 Cor. i. 27, ‘God hath chosen the weak things
of the world that he may confound the strong.’ It does not occur
in the Cambridge Syriac. And the proverb that one should ‘ visit
the poor in his affliction and speak of him in the Sultan’s presence
and do one’s diligence to save him from the mouth of the lion’
Ixx INTRODUCTION
furnishes an excellent illustration of 2 Tim. iv. 17, ‘at my first
answer no man stood by me...but the Lord stood by me and
strengthened me, and I was delivered from the mouth of the
lion.’ The parallel is not quite as strong in the Syriac, which
simply says ‘My son, help thy friend before the ruler, that thou
mayest help him from the lion.’
Another curious parallel will be found in 1 Cor. v. 11, where
the Apostle directs the Corinthians that ‘if one that is called
a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer,
or drunkard, or rapacious, with such an one not even to eat’
(7@ TolovT@ pndé cuvecbiew). Here we should compare the
sentence of Ahikar:
‘My son, with a man that is shameless, not even to eat bread,’
[Or perhaps, it is not proper even to eat.]
A few more references may be gleaned from the margins of
our translations. It is not necessary to allude to them more
definitely.
We have sufficiently established the antiquity of the legend
of Ahikar, its priority to the New Testament, and its literary
position amongst a certain group of books of the Old Testament.
And this is as far as we can hope to take the matter in a
preliminary investigation.
Observe now how the foregoing analysis of the Biblical and
semi-Biblical parallels in Ahikar helps us to understand the
relatively late period of the Aesop legends. For the peculiarities
to which we have made reference have either wholly disappeared
from the Greek account, or have been so changed as hardly to
allow of recognition. There is no common matter, worth speaking
of, between Tobit and Aesop. ‘My sister's son, Nadan’ has
become a young gentleman of good birth and breeding whom
Aesop adopts. A similar state of things holds on comparing the
Evangelical parallels with Aesop: there is, in the latter, no
beating of men and maids, no revelry and no riot. Judas does
not find a parallel, for the young man dies of remorse and takes his
time about it. There is no beating for him, no black hole, and
INTRODUCTION Ixxi
no bursting asunder. There are none of the characteristic ex-
pressions of Daniel, for Aesop who has been hidden away in a
tomb is brought before the king without the growth of eagle’s
talons and only—very dirty (adypav xai pure@v). And even
the pig that went to the bath has disappeared!
When we add to this the remark that the scene has been
shifted from Nineveh to Babylon, which implies a later historical
standpoint, and that the Pharaoh of Egypt has been named
Nectanebus, after the very last of the Pharaohs, which again
suggests a much later time than Nectanebus if we are to allow
sufficient historical parallax to make him appear as a contempo-
rary of Sennacherib, it is difficult to understand how Meissner
could have arrived at the conclusion that the Aesop story was
our earliest representative of the legends of Ahikar.
Perhaps we ought to say a few words before leaving this
part of the enquiry, in extenuation of the offence which we
may be held to have committed m putting an almost unknown
composition into a position of quasi-Biblical dignity. We are
rightly inclined to treat questions of Canon and authority in
a spirit of conservatism, and this leads us to hesitate before we
declare a canonical writing to be apocryphal or an apocryphal
writing to be canonical. A slight intensification of the same
sentiment may lead to an objection to the admission of an
unknown stranger even into the ranks of the Apocrypha,
But we must be on our guard against irrational prejudices.
The study of Church History reminds us that few things have
made the Church more ridiculous than its struggle to retain in
the Canon works which, on any intelligible theory of a Canon,
required a separate classification. If we may not struggle to
retain books in the Canon which belong elsewhere, neither
may we determine to reject books from a place either im the
Canon or amongst the deutero-canonical books, except as the
result of a scientific investigation. The Church, not many cen-
turies since, made a desperate effort to retain Tobit in the
Canon: they would have fought equally hard to prevent its
Ixxil INTRODUCTION
inclusion, if it had been outside the Canon. That is, the Church
would, in either case, have acted irrationally from an impulse
of conservative caution’.
In England, moreover, the Church was not only absurdly
conservative in the matter of the Canon, so as to abandon the
freedom of criticism practised by Luther and Calvin, but it
became positively reactionary. A spirit arose which insisted on
the reversal of scientific verdicts, and at the Restoration the
Savoy Conference crushed Puritanism, as it supposed, by ‘ carrying
it for Bel and the Dragon.’ In crushing Puritanism it created
the English Nonconformist movement. How ridiculous such an
attitude of mind looks at the present day !
It is right to admit, on the other hand, that both sides
discussed the Canon too much in the light of the burning theo-
logical disputes of the day. Tobit does not become uncanonical,
as so many of the Puritans supposed’, because it detracts from
the honour due to Christ by making an angel offer up Tobit’s
prayers to God, nor because the maxim that ‘alms deliver from
death’ was reckoned to be antagonistic to the doctrine of sal-
vation by faith in Christ alone. One would have supposed that
a little exegetical freedom would have got over such difficulties.
It is doubtful, however, whether they would have succeeded in
moving Tobit out of the Canon by merely critical questioning.
By the time the critical spirit has been completely developed, the
majority of the books of the Bible have become more or less
apocryphal, and the gulf between Canon and Apocrypha has
filled up again. So we will not be too hard on the reformers
for using their tools sometimes inartistically: they at all events
saved, and in that sense, made for us the English Bible; and
by thei sharp criticism of the Canonical Scriptures at their
1 Whitaker, De Sac. Litt. lib. i. p. 79. ‘Et quidni etiam Aesopi fabulas in
Canone reponi dixerim, si id Ecclesiae vestrae visum fuerit? Si enim Scriptura ab
Ecclesia authoritate deserta non magis valet, quam Aesopi fabulae, ut vester
quidem non obscure affirmat, quidni fieri etiam posse existimemus, ut Aesopi
fabulae in Canone reponantur, si modo Ecclesiae vestrae authoritas accesserit?’
2 Cf. Rainolds, Censura lib. apoc.
INTRODUCTION Ixx1ll
weakest points, they postponed the day of their more thorough
criticism until, by the grace of God, we should be better able
to bear it.
Nevertheless it is difficult to avoid a little. cynicism as we
reflect on some of the points that were contended. ‘Do alms
deliver from death, or do they not?’ An obscure novelist of the
first or second century before Christ reads in, or reads into, a
story of slightly earlier date than his own? the maxim that
Providence is on the side of the heaviest subscribers, He tells
us that a mythical character,.named Ahikar, escaped from im-
prisonment and death because his name was in the benefaction
lists of Heaven. The sentences which tell us this become Offertory
sentences, and the general statement becomes a burning theo-
logical question. The whole Church, from the second century,
endorses Tobit and Tobit’s soteriology, and the Councils take up
the wondrous tale and put their imprimatur von a gloss of the
Arabian Nights. In this way our theology is made for us.
Bearing in mind, then, the habitual perversity which has
marked the line of theological progress, let us not be too adverse
to Ahikar and his wonderful experiences. We only propose to
put him, as we have said, into the penumbra of the Biblical
literature, and to make him what opticians call a ragged edge
in the general field of view.
1 [Here again the time-limit for Ahikar must be raised in harmony with freshly
found texts, ]
CHAPTER VII
ON THE USE OF THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR IN THE
KORAN AND ELSEWHERE
WE pass on, in the next place, to point out that the legend
of Ahikar was known to Mohammed, and that he has used it
in a certain Sura of the Koran.
There is nothing @ priort improbable in this, for the Koran
is full of Jewish Haggada and Christian legends, and where such
sources are not expressly mentioned, they may often be detected
by consulting the commentaries upon the Koran in obscure
passages. For example, the story of Abimelech and the basket
of figs, which appears in the Last Words of Baruch, is carried
over into the Koran, as we have shown in our preface to the
Apocryphon in question. It will be interesting if we can add
another volume to Mohammed’s library, or to the library of the
teacher from whom he derived so many of his legends.
The 31st Sura of the Koran is entitled
LOKMAN
and it contains the following account of a sage of that name.
‘We heretofore bestowed wisdom on Lokman and commanded
him, saying, Be thou thankful unto God: for whoever is thankful,
shall be thankful to the advantage of his own soul: and if any
shall be unthankful, verily God is self-sufficient and worthy to
be praised. And remember when Lokman said unto his son,
as he admonished him,
INTRODUCTION Ixxv
O my son, Give not a partner unto God, for polytheism is
a great impiety.
* *& % * * &
O my son, verily every matter, whether good or bad, though
it be of the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, and be
hidden in a rock, or in the heavens, God will bring the
same to light: for God 1s clear-sighted and knowing.
O my son, be constant at prayer, and command that which
is just, and forbid that which is evil, and be patient under
the afflictions that shall befall thee: for this is a duty
absolutely incumbent upon all men.
* * ¥ * * *
And be moderate in thy pace, and lower thy voice, for the
most ungrateful of all voices surely is the voice of asses.’
* * * * * *
Now concerning this Lokman, there has been much throwing
about of brains (as Shakespeare would say) by the commentators
and the critics. The former have disputed whether Lokman was
an inspired prophet or merely a philosopher and have decided
against his inspiration: and they have given him a noble lineage,
some saying that he was sister’s son to Job, and others that he was
nephew to Abraham, and lived until the time of Jonah. Others
have said that he was an African slave. It will not escape the
reader's notice that the term szster’s son to Job, to which should
be added nephew of Abraham, is the proper equivalent of the
é£adedgos by which Nadan and Ahikar are described in the Tobit
legends. Job, moreover, is singularly like Tobit. That he lived
till the time of Jonah reminds one of the destruction of Nineveh
as described in the book of Tobit, 1 accordance with Jonah’s
prophecy. Finally the African slave is singularly hke Aesop
(ravTov yap Alicwmos Tt AiBiom: as Planudes says) who is a
black man and a slave.in the Aesop legends. From all of which
it appears as if the Arabic Commentators were identifying Lokman
with Ahikar on the one hand and with Aesop on the other;
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION
i.e. with two characters whom .we have already shown to be
identical.
The identification with Aesop is confirmed by the fact that
many of the fables ascribed to Aesop in the west are referred to
Lokman in the east: thus Sale says :—
‘The Commentators mention several quick repartees of
Luqman which agree so well with what Maximus Planudes
has written of Aesop, that from thence and from the fables
attributed to Luqman by the Orientals, the latter has been
generally thought to be no other than the Aesop of the
Greeks. However that may be (for I think the matter may
bear a dispute) I am of opinion that Planudes borrowed
a great part of his life of Aesop from the traditions he met
with in the east concermng Luqman, concluding them to
have been the same person, &c.’
These remarks of Sale are confirmed by our observation that
the Aesop story 1s largely a modification of the Ahikar legend,
taken with the suggestion which we derive from the Mohammedan
commentators, who seem to connect Lokman with Tobit on the
one hand and with Aesop on the other.
Now let us turn to the Sura of the Koran which bears the
name Lokman, and examine it internally: we remark (i) that
he bears the name of sage, precisely as Ahikar does: (11) that he
is a teacher of ethics to his son, using Ahikar’s formula ‘ya bani’
in teaching him: (iii) although at first sight the matter quoted
by Mohammed does not appear to be taken from Ahikar, there
are curious traces of dependence. We may especially compare
the following from Ahikar: ‘O my son, bend thy head low and
soften thy voice and be courteous and walk in the straight path
and be not foolish. And raise not thy voice when thou laughest,
for were it by a loud voice that a house was built, the ass would
build many houses every day.’
Clearly Mohammed has been using Ahikar, and apparently from
memory, unless we like to assume that the passage in the Koran
is the primitive form for Ahikar, rather than the very forcible
INTRODUCTION Ixxvil
figure m our published texts. Mohammed has also mixed up
Ahikar’s teaching with his own, for some of the sentences which
he attributes to Lokman appear elsewhere in the Koran. But
this does not disturb the argument. From all sides tradition
advises us to equate Lokman with Aesop and Ahikar, and the
Koran confirms the equation. The real difficulty is to determine
the derivation of the names of Lokman and Aesop from Abikar‘.
Some of the Moslem traditions referred to above may be
found in Al Masudi c«. 4:
‘There was in the country of Ailah and Midian a sage named
Lokman, who was the son of Auka, the son of Mezid, the
son of Sarin: he was a Nubian, the freedman of Lokain,
the son of Jesr. He was born in the tenth year of king
David: he was a virtuous slave to whom God granted the
gift of wisdom: he lived, and did not cease to give to the
world the example of wisdom and piety, until the days of
Jonas the son of Matta when he was sent to the people
of Nineveh, in the district of Mosul.’
Other writers connected him with Balaam, and this form of
the tradition as to his historical place passed into the west and is
found in the Disciplina Clericalis of Petrus Alphonsus, amongst
whose collections from the Arabic will be found the following
sentence? :
‘Balaam qui lingua Arabica vocatur Lucaman dixit filio suo:
fili, ne sit formica sapientior te, etc.’
Of the five proverbs which are given in the Disciplina as from
Lokman, I do not think any are current in the Ahikar legends.
The identification with Balaam proceeds, like that of Asaph,
from a desire to find a place for an inspired prophet in Biblical
Chronology; and it leads, perhaps, to the geographical location
of the prophet in Midian: although this may be merely a mis-
understanding for Media.
1 The ms. Mus. Brit. Arab. 644 contains on ff. 189-193 a Testamentum
Lukmani sapientis ad jilium. There does not seem to be any coincidence with
Ahikar.
2 See Migne, P. L. 157.
Ixxvill INTRODUCTION
Another curious point in connexion with the Moslem tradi-
tions is the discussion whether Loqman was or was not a prophet.
This discussion cannot have been borrowed from a Greek source,
for the idea which is involved in the debate is a Semitic idea.
But it is a’ discussion which was almost certain to anse, whether
Lokman of whom Mohammed writes so approvingly had any special
fame as a prophet, because Mohammed is the seal of the prophets.
And it seems from what Sale says on the subject, that the
Moslem doctors decided the question in the negative; Lokman
‘received from God wisdom and eloquence in a high degree, which
some pretend were given him in a vision, on his making choice
of wisdom preferably to the gift of prophecy, either of which was
offered him. Thus the Moslem verdict was that Lokman was a
sage and not a prophet.
On the other hand it should be noticed that there are reasons
for believing that he was regarded in some circles and probably
from the earliest times as a prophet. The fact of his teaching in
aphorisms is of no weight against this classification: for the
Hebrew Bible has two striking imstances of exactly similar
character, in both of which the sage appears as prophet. Thus
Prov. xxx. begins:
‘The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy,
and Prov. xxxi. begins:
‘The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother
taught him.’
Both of these collections appear to be taken from popular
tales, and they are strikingly like to the sentences of Ahikar.
We need not be surprised then if Ahikar’s sayings were regarded
as prophecy. Then we have direct Moslem evidence on the
point; for in the Bibliographical Lexicon of Mustafa ibn Abdullah
we find the following enumeration of special prophets*:
1 It will be seen that we do not accept the interpretation which makes Agur and
Lemuel inhabitants of a mythical Massa.
2 iii, 478, tr. Fluegel.
INTRODUCTION Ix xix
‘In libro Misbah el-ram] leguntur haec:
Haec vaticinandi ars in miraculis numeratur a sex prophetis
peculiariter editis ab Adamo scilicet, Idriso, Locmano,
Yeremya, Shaya, et Daniele.’
Of these six prophets, all except -Lokman are confessedly
Biblical, for Idris stands for Enoch, and Shaya is clearly Isaiah.
If then Lokman does not owe his place in the list to his Biblical
position, 1t is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he and the
others are taken out of some kind of Biblical Chronology or
Chronicon.
This opinion is confirmed by Al Masudi’s statement, that he
was born in the 10th year of king David, which almost implies
the use of a Chronicon. And when we turn to the Arabic History
of Dynasties of Abu-el Faraj, which is based upon Eusebius’ Chro-
nicon in which the prophets and sages are arranged under their
respective kings, we find Lokman thrust into a place amongst the
great philosophers of the world, who have their beginning in the
time of David. Accordingly, Abu-el Fara] says’:
‘Kjus tempore (sc. David) fuit Empedocles sapiens, unus e
quinque columnis Philosophiae. I[llum autumo, Pytha-
goram, Socratem, Platonem et Aristotelem....Ait alius,
Primum qui philosophiae operam dedit, fuisse Pythagoram.
Asserunt etiam Islamitarum nonnulli, Primum qui a sa-
pientia denominatus sit, fuisse Locmannum, qui tempore
Davidis claruit, et ab illo accepisse Empedoclem.’
Lokman, then, has found his way into a Chronicon in which he
was placed in the reign of David.
But according to Al Masudi, we may date him even more
closely than this; for he is said to have been born in the tenth
year of David. Why the tenth year? On turning to Eusebius’
Chronicon, from which most of the Syriac Chroniclers derive, we
find against the ninth year of David in the Armenian version, and
1 Pococke, Hist. Dynast. p. 33.
Ixxx INTRODUCTION
against the eighth year of David in the Latin version, the state-
ment :
Prophetabant Gad, Nathan et Asaph.
May we not fairly suspect that Lokman, who is known to be
equivalent to the Greek Aesop, has here been equated with Asaph ?
Fabricius?, indeed, says that such an identification has already
been proposed : ‘non defuerunt qui Assaphum prophetam, Davidis
itidem aequalem, propter nonnullam nominis convenientiam con-
funderent cum nostro Aesopo, absurde profecto. No doubt the
identification would be absurd, if we were looking for a real
historical equivalence, but there is nothing absurd in the suppaosi-
tion that some one may have tried to find a place for Aesop the
philosopher in a chronicle; and since the Planudes legends?, as
well as the Syriac fables, show him to have been identified with
Josephus, there is quite a possibility for a further speculation
which should give the fabulist a place in the reign of David: for
Asaph and Joseph are not so far apart.
That Lokman was black appears clearly in the Arabic tradition
about him; thus Ibn Khallikan in his Biographical Dictionary
tells us that Al-Kadi ar-Rashid was black in colour; and to this
allusion is made by the poet and Katib Abi-l-Fath Mahmid Ibn
Kadiis in these satirical verses:
O thou who resemblest Lokman, but not in wisdom ;
Thou who hast lost thy learning, not preserved it;
Thou hast stolen every man’s verses,
And mayest be called the black thief ;
where the point of the comparison turns on the assumed blackness
of Lokman.
The same thing is involved in the statement of Al Masudi
that Lokman was a Nubian slave.
1 Bibl. Gr. li. ¢. 9.
2 Planudes has a tale of a trick which the Delphians played on Aesop by hiding
a cup in his baggage, which must have arisen from some reminiscence of the story
of Joseph in the book of Genesis. His Aesop is, therefore, a disguised Joseph.
And our Cambridge ms. of Ahikar contains also a collection of Aesop fables under
the title of Josephus.
INTRODUCTION Ixxxi
How closely this is reproduced in Planudes may be seen from
the following references :
p. 228. péAas—éOe Kal tov ‘dvopatos érvye: Tadtov yap Ai-
awros TO AlOiort.
p. 288. Gavpalew Bras To pepedavapevoy avOpwrov vovveyéc-
Tepa TavtTwv émpate.
p. 241. pero: wotamos ei; 0 5é* pwédas, pyai.
Planudes’ Aesop agrees, therefore, in this respect also with the
Moslem traditions.
The legend of Ahikar has also had an influence upon other
books of a similar type, where story-telling and the enforcement
of ethical maxims are combined. Such a case is the Story of
Syntipas the Philosopher, a late Greek translation of a Syriac
text, of which the date of composition is uncertam, as also
whether it was primitively composed in Syriac or in some other
language’,
There was an Arabic form of this story extant as early as
956 A.D., and the diffusion of the collection of tales 1s phenomenal
in later times.
The opening of the story 1s as follows:
‘There was once. a king whose name was Cyrus. He had
seven wives; but had become old and had no son. Then
he arose and prayed, and vowed a vow and anointed himself.
And it pleased God to give him a son. The boy grew and
shot up like a cedar [as Sévdpov dpsotov in the Greek
version, which appears to be a mere blunder for Kédpos
apiotn}|. Then he gave him over to learn wisdom and he
was three years with his teacher, without however learning
anything.’
The opening of the story is common matter to an Kastern
novelist, but there are allusions which betray the use of a model
of composition. To put Ahikar into the form Cyrus was not
1 Cf. Sindban oder die sicben Weisen Meister ed. von Fr. Baethgen.
L. A. L
lxxxll INTRODUCTION
difficult in view of the Slavonic Akyrios for the same name;
‘seven wives’ is the modification of a later age on the onginal
‘sixty wives’ of Ahikar; but what is conclusive for the use of the
earlier legend is the remark that the king’s son ‘shot up like a
cedar. Thus we have in the Arabic version, ‘Nadan grew big
and walked, shooting up like a tall cedar, and in the final re-
proaches of the sage, ‘My boy! I brought thee up with the best
upbringing and trained thee like a tall cedar. So that Ahikar is
as truly a model for Syntipas as he was for Tobit.
At the conclusion of the Syntipas legends, when the young
man is solving all the hard ethical problems that his father
proposes to him, we again find a trace of Ahikar, for he speaks
of the ‘insatiate eye which as long as it sees wealth is so ardent
after it that he regards not God, until in death the earth covers
his eyes. And amongst the sayings of Ahikar we find one to the
effect that ‘the eye of man is as a fountain, and it will never be
satisfied with wealth until it is filled with dust.’ Dr Dillon points
out that this is one of the famous sayings of Mohammed, and if
that be so, we have one more j@an from Abikar in the Koran.
Cf. Sura 102, ‘The emulous desire of multiplying [riches and
children] employeth you, until ye visit the graves.’
There is one of the later similitudes of Ahikar which has found
its way into early French poetry. Whether it is a part of the
primitive collection of Ahikar’s sayings and doings may be left
uncertain, but it can hardly be doubted that the story of the
Wolf who went to school is responsible for the following extract
from the Poéstes de Marie de France’:
A, dit li Prestres; A, dist li Leux,
Qi mult es fel et engingneux.
B, dist li Prestres, di od mei;
B, dist li Leus, la lettre vei.
C, dit li Prestres, di avant ;
C, dist li Lox, a-il dune tant ?
Li Prestres feit, o di par toi ;
Li Loz respunt jeo ne ‘sai qoi.
* Roquefort, Poésies de Marie de France. Vol. 2, No. 82.
INTRODUCTION Ixxxill
Di ke t’en samble et si espel ;
Respunt li Lox, aignel, aignel.
Li Prestres dist, que verté tuche
Tel en penssé, tel en la buche.
It is somewhat strange, in view of the wide circulation of the
book in Armenian, that there are not more traces of it found in
the Armenian literature. Perhaps this is due to the lateness of
the version. Mr Conybeare has made some enquiry on this point
and reports as follows:
“The date of the Armenian version is hard to ascertain, The
Venice MS. 482 is the oldest I know of, and may be ascribed to
about the year 1500. ‘The version itself, however, must be much
older. For this ms. already shows a text that must have had a
long history. It is the best exponent of a group of Mss. mostly
written m the seventeenth century and descended from a common
archetype. But this archetype already contained profound modi-
fications of the text, from which the copy that is the ancestor of
Bodl. Canon 131 was free. We must then assume a tolerably long
history for the text previously to about 1500. On linguistic
grounds I should refer the version to the twelfth or thirteenth
century.
Perhaps reminiscences of the book are to be found in Armenian
which would postulate an earlier date for the version, but I know
of none. Lazar of Pharb, indeed, writing towards the close of the
fifth century, appears to have an acquaintance with one proverb in
the Wisdom of Khikar, but not necessarily with an Armenian version.
He is writing from Amid in Mesopotamia, and, referring to the
‘national heresy’ of his compatriots, quotes the saying, ‘Her that
married a swine, befits a bath of sewer-water. The allusion of
course is to the preference of the Armenian Baptists for running
water rather than for a font.”
CHAPTER VIII
FURTHER REMARKS ON THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE AND
EXTENT OF THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
WE will now add some considerations which throw further
light upon the first form of the legend and upon the language
in which it circulated.
It has already been suggested that the original document was
probably coeval with Tobit, with which and with other books
of the Old Testament (such as Daniel and Sirach) it has much
consanguinity. So that there is a prejudication (as Paley would
say) in favour of the hypothesis of a Hebrew original, for it is
generally conceded that Tobit was originally written in Hebrew or
Aramaic, and the actual Hebrew text of Sirach has recently come
to light in an unexpected manner.
We can largely clear the ground for the discussion of this
question by reducing the multiplicity of the versions, as by
referring the Ethiopic texts to an Arabic base, and the Arabic
to a Syriac origin, while the Slavonic texts are only a disguise
for a Greek version. We should then have to discuss the mutual
relations of Greek, Syriac and Armenian texts. In this case
the Greek is, however, not the Greek of Planudes, but a hypo-
thetical Greek which explains the existence of the Slavonic and
is itself lost. Of the Armenian version Mr Conybeare reports
that in the oldest forms of the legend which he has exammed
there is a good agreement of the Armenian with the Syriac and
some signs of Greek influence. Apparently the last stage of
the enquiry would be one of priority between an existing Synac
version and a hypothetical lost Greek text. We are still in the
preliminary stages of such an enquiry, and must express ourselves
INTRODUCTION Ixxxv
cautiously as to the final solution of the problem involved in
the linguistic rivalry.
But we must at least say that there are signs of an immediate
derivation of the existing Syriac from a lost Hebrew or Aramaic
original. Amongst these signs there are a number of cases of the
conjunction of the infinitive with the substantive verb. Such cases
are
BAL AssALsIA aM mere’ =as if he had really found them.
Pp. >)
was. xmsso wilaca=he made no memorial of me
at all. p. xy
ham acarm cam <\=did I not certainly hear?
Pp. rs
duly, eazsy = thou art gone clean mad.
PP. co 3%
Now it 1s difficult to believe that these pronounced Hebraisms
have arisen in the Syriac, which is a translation from some lost
original, except by the method of literal translation. [The
affirmation of Hebraism is here too strong. The idiom is found in
the best Syriac writers. Bardesanes, De fato, for example, would
show many such cases. }
Another curious case of linguistic coincidence will be found
in the use of So= in the sense of ‘palace.’ This use occurs in
the Old Test., e.g. in 1 Kings xxi 1, 2 Kings xx. 18, &c., but
it is especially noticeable in Daniel, whose relations with Ahikar
have already been pronounced suspicious, e.g. Dan. iv. 4, ‘I
Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my
palace ’ (=15>'99); ef. Dan. vi. 18, &c. We find it frequently
in the latter part of Ahikar: e.g. ‘let the doors of the palace be
covered with red hangings,’ ‘I bored five holes in the eastern
wall of the palace. The word in the Syriac must be translated
in this way, and not in the sense of ‘temple. ‘The usage is
exactly-parallel to that in the book of Daniel.
A very strong confirmation of this theory of a lost Hebrew
Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION
original lies in the supposition that Ahikar’s teaching of his son
was in the old-fashioned Hebrew style which is based upon the
successive letters of the alphabet. If this supposition can be
verified the demonstration will be complete. And there is some-
thing to be said for it. The author of the legends makes in his
parables a lesson for a wolf: they bid the wolf say, according to
the Armenian version, ayp, ben, gim (ie. the first three letters
of the Armemian alphabet), and the wolf said Ayts, bouts, garhn
(.e. goat, kid, lamb). Clearly the Armenian is preserving a trait
from the original, in which the wolf, learning his alphabet, names
animals which he has eaten, according to the method of a child’s
picture-blocks (only that the material of the illustration has to
be gastronomic). The point of the parable is lost in the Arabic,
which makes the wolf say for his A and B, ‘lamb and goat in
my belly’: but the words in Arabic do not respond to the
suggested alphabet. That feature has disappeared. In the old
French the wolf, in despair at the length of the lesson, proceeds
to say it his own way, ‘Aignel, Aignel,’ and here the first letter
is preserved, though the translation appears to have broken down
on the second letter of the alphabet. For he gives nothing more
than lamb to his wolf. The Syriac rendering is as follows: ‘the
teacher said to him, “(Say) Aleph Beth”; but the wolf said “ Kid,
Sheep”’: on which Dr Dillon appropriately suggests that ‘the wolf
pronounced the words beginning with the first two letters of the
alphabet which best expressed the thoughts of his mind.’
Will this sort of jesting go back into Hebrew and is it in
harmony with Hebrew thought, generally, to teach by means of
alphabetically arranged words and sentences? The lamb and the
kid may very well be N DN ‘lamb’ and X93 ‘kid, but what
stood under the letter 9? Was it the Chaldee 8M°35 which in
the Targums stands for a goat ?
As to the general question of the propriety of alphabetic
lessons, we have an. exact parallel in the lessons given to king
Lemuel by his mother, who praises the Good Woman from Aleph
to Tau.
INTRODUCTION Ixxxvll
Another curious case of the kind occurs in a couple of little
tracts on ethics attributed to Ben Sira which were published
with a translation into Latin by Fagius'. Of these the shorter
one deserves mention because there are some sentences in it
which throw light on Ahikar. It is a dialogue between Jesus
Ben Sira and his teacher, in which Ben Sira (at an abnormally
early age) is called on to say Aleph Beth, much in the same way
as the boy Jesus is called on in the Apocryphal Gospels. He
replies with pregnant sentences, forming an alphabet of ethics.
Thus Aleph begins with AAD bx (ne nimium sollicitus sis)
and the sentences which follow are rich in advice against the
desolating influence of ornate and guileful woman, much in the
style of Ahikar.
Cf. the following advice, ‘absconde (dyn) oculos tuos a
muliere formosa, ne forte te capiat rete ejus’ with the parallel
sentences in Ahikar, and note how unsuitable they are to a five-
year old child. The alphabet of Ben Sira appears to have used
some earlier collection.
This appears also under the letter ¥ where the child replies
‘absconde (BY) mi file divitias tuas in vita tua, atque heredibus
tuis ne dederis usque ad diem mortis tuae. Here we find a
child of tender years addressing his Rab with the introductory
formula that we find in Ahikar! He must have been borrowing
from some earlier collection of proverbs like that in our legend.
When we come to the letter & we find the child repeating
‘audi, mi domine (*J)3N YO), verba mea et auribus percipe
sermones meos. Da operam ne in contentionem venias cum
vicinis tuis. Et si animadverteris in sociis tuis rem malam, ne
illam temere diffames.’
Here we remark not only that parallel advices can be found
in Ahikar, but the opening sentence in Ahikar is most exactly
reflected here, in the first clause of the child’s reply. And it
is to be remarked that the Armenian version has this sentence
1 Sententiae Morales Ben Syrae...ex Hebraeo in Latinum per Paulum Fagium,
Jenae, 1542.
Ixxxvill INTRODUCTION
not at the beginning of the sayings but, almost as in Ben Sira,
at the end. But this is not all, the word ‘SIN comes from some
previous document, for we found in our Syriac version when we
were editing this actual introductory clause the words
dusithl eho 33 ,t> [,t50] sco
We omitted the bracketed word as a scribe’s error, but we
half suspect from its occurrence in the parallel sentence in Ben
Sira that it should have been edited and that it belongs to the
ancestry of the sayings.
Thus it becomes increasingly likely that the original legend
of Ahikar followed in its precepts the order of the Hebrew
alphabet. Is there any way of testing this point?
We are probably not in a position to make a final and com-
plete demonstration, but the following suggestion may be helpful.
Let us take the proverbs of Ahikar in the Armenian and Arabic
forms and compare them. In the Armenian there are a hundred
such proverbs, of which one is a doublet. The Arabic, as edited
by us, divides into 67 proverbs. Jt need hardly be said that we
have no expectation to carry back either the 99 proverbs or the
66 proverbs into the original nucleus, from which the separate
versions have been evolved. How much, however, of these two
collections is common matter? I think it will be found that
22 of the Armenian sayings correspond to 25 of the Arabic
sayings. The nucleus of these two versions is suspiciously sug-
gestive of a number of sayings arranged according to an alphabet
of 22 letters.
Whether this suggestion can be verified by an actual recon-
struction of the alphabetic sentences is tvo difficult a question
at this early stage in the study of the book, but it should at least
be kept in mind. It is certain that alphabetism is a favourite
form of Jewish ethical teaching.
Another question which will have to be discussed from a
comparison of the extant versions is the determination of accre-
tions which have attached to the primitive draft of the legend.
INTRODUCTION Ixxx1x
We have already alluded to this in the matter of the proverbs,
by ruling some of them not to belong to the first form. But
the whole story needs to be treated in the same way.
Our first thought, for example, with regard to the incident
of the flying boys, is that the matter does not belong to the
first form. It seems to be characteristic of a later time than
Tobit. It goes along with the rest of the silly questions and
trifing answers that pass between Pharaoh and Ahikar. Set the
latter to build a castle in the air, and he sends up boys to ask
from the backs of eagles for stones and lime, because they are
ready to begin. Ask him to sew together the pieces of a broken
millstone, and he begs for strips from a neighbouring stone to
sew with, as he has left his tools and thread at home. It can
hardly be called ‘excellent fooling’ and-it has not as great an
appearance of antiquity as seems required. But, as it occurs
with some modification in the Aesop legends, as well as in the
best versions, it cannot.be discarded from the story.
Another suspicious piece is the story of the pillar on which
is planted 12 cedars, each with 30 twigs, &c. The writer who in-
serted 1t almost admits that it is an ancient and venerable riddle,
when he makes Ahikar say that every ploughboy in Assyria knows
it. And certainly it turns up in all sorts of corners of Eastern
romance. For instance it occurs in a story to which we have
already drawn attention, the one to which Burton gives the
name of ‘the Linguist Dame, the Duenna and the King’s Son.’
It is one of the puzzles set to the king’s son by the over-educated
young lady who is occupied with his ruin, and no doubt was a
fashionable conundrum in the best Arabian society.
One would feel disposed to reject such a story from the
legends of Ahikar, if it were not that in the mss. from which
Lidzbarski edited his translation the question occurs in a very
early form indeed. Here we have a pillar composed of 8736
stones, bound together by 365 bricks, on which are planted 12
cedars, each cedar having 30 twigs, and on each twig pairs of
fruits, one of which is white and the other black. This is
L. A. m
XC INTRODUCTION
interpreted, of course, to mean the year. Now clearly 8736 is
meant to disguise 364 x 24, the number of hours in the year.
That is, it is not a year of 363 days, but one of 364 The
reference to the 365 bricks 1s an mterpolation.
But where shall we find a solar year of 364 days? Such a
reckoning cannot be modern. We can easily find a lunar year
of 354 days, by taking months alternately 29 and 30 days in
length. But this is not what the writer means.
A case of the kind will be found in certain chapters of the
book of Enoch. Thus we have in c. 74, ‘all the days which
belong to one of those five full years amount to three hundred
and sixty-four days’: c. 75, ‘the harmony of the course of the
world is brought about through its separate 364 world stations’:
c. 82, ‘the year is completed in 364 days.’
If then any MS. or version of Ahikar describes the year as
consisting of 364 days, this is a genuine early reckoning, belonging
to the period of the book of Enoch, i.e. to pre-Christian times.
For this reason, this part of the legend is not lightly to be
discarded.
There remains much to be done in comparing the versions
inter se, but enough has perhaps been said by way of introducing
the new book to our readers. Under their criticism, and by the
light of their mvestigation, we shall soon know much more with
regard to the time and place of production, and the primitive
contents of this charming little tale.
CHAPTER Ix
ON THE RECENTLY RECOVERED ARAMAIC VERSION
WE have already intimated, in the editorial paragraphs which
distinguish this our second edition, that the occasion of this
edition is a great literary surprise, the discovery of an Aramaic
papyrus, of such extraordinary antiquity, as to rank it and its
companion documents amongst the oldest known Biblical monu-
ments. Who ever expected that the fifth century before Christ
was going to be represented by a library of its own, consisting of
documents from the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and written
in the very Aramaic dialect that was used by them? And who
could have imagined that the documents in question would have
come from the site of a Jewish colony on an island in the Nile,
occupied at the time of which we are speaking by a stately temple
that rivalled the sanctuary of Jerusalem itself, and exhibited
a ritual of its own independent (as far as can at present be
determined) of the so-called Deuteronomic legislation ?
The circumstances of these great discoveries of Aramaic docu-
ments on the island of Elephantiné, just below the first cataract
of the Nile, are by this time familiar to every one; and there is
therefore no need to discuss them in detail. Our care is the story
of Ahikar, and it is sufficient to remark that among the finds of
this exploration, there is a series of papyrus fragments which
clearly belong to the Ahikar hterature.
They were published by Prof. Sachau in his Aramdische
Papyrus und Ostraka aus einer jiidischen Militarkolonie zu
Elephantiné, pp. 147—182.
x¢ell INTRODUCTION
In the preface to the work in question, Prof. Sachau discusses
the story of Ahikar, to which eleven leaves of the recovered
papyni belong: he points out that they cannot be younger than
410—400 B.c. since they are found in company with a number of
similarly wntten and dated documents, which belong to the reign
of Darius IT (424404 B.c.). It is fortunate that the documents
are so securely dated: but the dating of the document leaves the
dating of the composition of the Ahikar-book an open question,
except so far, that 1ts antiquity must be greater than the end of
the fifth century. Prof. Sachau observes that the names and
titles of persons in the story appear to be Assyrian, but that the
obscunity of form in which they come to us suggests that the
great Assyrian Empire was no longer in existence, when the author
composed his story! He 1s consequently led to refer the work to
the last decades of the Neo-Babylonian kmgdom, which followed
the fall of Assyria m 603 B.c.: and finally suggests, as a workmg
hypothesis, that Ahikar was written between 550 and 450 Bo.
This does not, exclude the possibility that the name of the hero of
the tale, which is old-Babylonian in form, may belong to a much
earlier tine: but as regards the date of the story, we may
provisionally accept Sachau’s dating. It is clear from these
considerations that we are dealing with the oldest literary monu-
ment in the Aramaic language; and, although the book is found
in the ruins of a Jewish colony, 1t wasa colony who spoke Aramaic
and not Hebrew, and who read the story before us in the Aramaic
that they spoke, without a trace of Hebrew influence in the
tradition, or any suggestion of Judaism in the origins of the book.
As might, perhaps, have been expected, the Ahikar story of the
fifth century before Christ is simpler in character than the later
versions from which we have edited it. It is free from some
expansions, which successive generations of Ornental story-tellers
have made, and it has more of the appearance of possible historical
verity. The story of Ahikar’s journey to Egypt, to answer the
hard questions of the quarrel-seeking Pharaoh, is absent from the
papyrus: we have no right to say positively that 1t never was
INTRODUCTION X¢Cill
there, for its absence may only mean the non-recovery of the
papyrus upon which it was written; but so far as it goes, the
evidence is against the belief that the Egyptian incidents are
primitive: we had, in fact, cast doubts upon them before the
papyri came to light,
In the matter of the Proverbs and Parables of Ahikar, the
divergence between the papyrus and the later versions is so great
that we can hardly be sure that we are dealing with the same
collection : the document is so incomplete, and so hard to decipher,
and the comeidences between its text and the later Ahikar texts
are so few, that we are almost disposed to believe we have
stumbled upon another collection of Ahikariana (if I may coin
a word!). On the other hand, if the collection should be diverse,
it 1s also similar; 1t 1s made up in the same way out of gnomic
advices and allegorical animal-stories, and it may be only the
paucity of our material that is hindering our recognition of the
ancestral sayings and parabolizings which underlie our complete
and later texts,
In the question of histoncity, the newly-found document has
something to say for itself. It does not, at all events, make the
blunder of inverting the sequence of Assyrian kings, and making
Esarhaddon the father of Sennacherib. The earlier the document
is, the less probable would such a blunder be; and it is natural to
ask, in view of the relative correctness of the author’s Assyrian
history as compared with later story-tellers whether 1t may not be
the case that Ahikar may after all be a historical personage, whose
tragic misfortunes and dramatic recovery may have furnished the
material for later romances. There is no radical impossibility that
a wise vizier may have lived im the times of the Assyrian kingdom,
and have been betrayed by an unwise adopted son, Some things
suggest that he was a teacher of ethics, as ethics were understood
at that day, and that his ‘ wise saws and modern instances ’ (modern
at that time) were inscribed upon pillars for subsequent national
edification, in which case they may conceivably turn up in some of
the many modern Assyrian excavations. Only we must be on our
m3
XGlV INTRODUCTION
guard against making Ahikar historical, simply to gratify people
who think that Tobit 1s canonical.
Prof. Sachau, with his usual courtesy, has been so kind as
to allow me to make any use that I wish of his published Akikar :
and it will perhaps be thought that a fresh edition of the text
should be made in this volume. On the whole we have thought it
best not to exactly transcribe and re-edit. The text is difficult to
read, hard to restore and to correct. What is probably wanted in
this edition 1s a general presentation of the scope of the papyrus,
in which case those who wish for a more exact scientific discussion
must consult the various editions that are appearing in Germany,
among which the first place may be given to that of Ungnad and
Stark.
CHAPTER X
SOME RECENT EDITIONS OF THE STORY OF AHIKAR
A BRIEF reference description of the work which has been done
upon the text and interpretation of Ahikar since the publication
of our first edition seems desirable.
It is not practicable to follow in detail the track of the
reviewers, who have distributed their approbations or otherwise
to our work; but there are several striking contributions to the
subject. which demand at least some notice, which have been
called out either by our edition or by the news of the Assuan
discoveries.
Our first reference is to an essay by Prof. Rudolf Smend, on
‘the age and provenience of the story of Ahikar and its relation to
the Aesop legends’. The essay was bound up with another by
Johannes Miiller on the criticism of the book of Tobit. Smend
was not satisfied that the references to Ahikar in the book of Tobit
were original; he treated them as interpolations, but as mterpola-
tions by a very early hand. The interpreter used a Jewish Ahikar
book, which was closely related to our Ahikar story, and at least
as early as the birth of Christ (!); perhaps somewhat earlier. If
Smend was unfortunate, in assigning so late a date to Ahikar, he
was very successful in another direction, mm analysing the relation
between the proverbs and parables of Ahikar, and the fables of
Aesop; here he was. able to show conclusively the dependence of
the Western literature upon the Eastern. He also drew attention
to an important point which I had insufficiently treated. On
1 Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fiir die A.T. Wissenschaft, No. xiii (Giessen, 1908).
XGV]1 INTRODUCTION
p. xlin of our first edition will be found an argument of mine to
the following effect : Democritus, according to the Greek tradition,
made use of certain ethical sayings inscribed on the pillar of
Ahikar (Akikaros).
But amongst the fifteen Ethiopic saymgs of Ahikar, we find
that the second is ascribed to Democrates in the Arabic writer
Shahrastani (the saying that ‘the tail of a dog gets him meat,
but his voice gets him blows’). Evidently Democrates is a
corruption for Democritus; and the statement that Democritus
borrowed from Ahikar is confirmed. Further, the thirteenth
Aethiopic saying is, as far as its first half is concerned, ascribed to
Socrates in the collections of Maximus. It was natural to suggest
that Socrates was an error for Democrates, and that Maximus had
used a Democritean collection, with elements in it ultimately
derived from Ahtkar.
At this point Smend came to my reproof and to my aid, by
pointing out that there were three successive loans from Ahikar in
the immediate neighbourhood of one another in the passage which
I had quoted: they were as follows:
Suffer no one to go so far as to tread on thy heel to-day, lest
he tread on thy neck to-morrow,
This is the 39th of the Syriac proverbs.
Shahrastani continues: ‘And be not so over-sweet lest thou
be gulped down, nor so over-bitter as to be spit out.’ This is
No. 8 in the Armenian and Slavonic proverbs.
Then follows the proverb quoted above about the tail of the
dog. So much for my careless reading of Shahrastani.
Now that we have the proof of the antiquity of the Ahikar
legend furnished by the Assuan papyri, the parallels with Democritus
acquire fresh importance: it 1s quite unnecessary to indulge any
further doubts as to the accuracy of the tradition, which makes
Democritus dependent on the Chaldean Ahikar. It 1s probable
that Pseudo-Demokritus will have to be banished; whether we
shall have occasionally to speak of a Pseudo-Ahikar 1s another
matter, for the Oriental legends have certainly had a long history,
INTRODUCTION xXevi
and it was easy to expand them from external literature which
was more or less like the original material.
Our next reference should be to Professor Paul Vetter’s studies
on Ahikar and Tobit. These valuable papers appeared in the
Tiibingen Quartalschrift 1904 and 1905 as follows:
pp. 321—364.
1
oe Pp 512—539.
pp. 321—370.
1
a ee 497 —546.
They contain a very thorough investigation of the origin of the
Ahikar-story and of its relations to Tobit. The Armenian text is
translated, and a valuable table of concordances is made for the
Proverbs and Parables in the separate Versions. We have made
use of this table in the article on Ahikar which we have contributed
to Prof. Charles’ Corpus of Apocryphal writers, now being published
by the Oxford University Press. Unfortunately Vetter fell into
the same mistake as Smend in underestimating the age of the
Ahikar story which he thought was composed somewhere between
100 B.c. and 200 a.p.! He was also rather too ready to treat
the existing book as due to a Jewish author, writing in Hebrew,
though he rectified the mistake by suggesting the existence of an
earlier Ahikar-book, of pagan, i.e. Babylonian origin, and written
in Aramaic. He was also occasionally in error through undue
hesitation, as when he would not correct Strabo’s allusion to the
fame of Ahikar among the people of the Bosporus to the people of
Borsippa. He objected to the parallel drawn between the death
of Judas and the death of Nadan, as though the latter might have
been dependent on the former; in which case the Judas legends
are left without their proper folk-lore explanation, and the Gospels
and the Acts unharmonised. Apparently Vetter really believes that
Judas both hanged himself and burst asunder! The whole matter
suggests another solution, now that the antiquity of the Ahikar-story
has been placed beyond dispute. We. have no right to exclude
folk-lore explanations from the N.T., when they furnish us with
xevlll INTRODUCTION
the exact key to our perplexities, in discussing miraculous situations
or conflicting documents.
We shall find many valuable hints and references in these
essays of Vetter’s.
We now pass on to note briefly the very valuable edition of
Ahikar which was brought out by the Abbé Nau in the year 1909,
under the title, Histoire et Sagesse dAhikar l’Assyrien. It
professes to contain a translation of the Syriac versions, with the
principal variations contamed in the Arabic, Armenian, Greek,
Neo-Syriac, Slav and Roumanian. To these translations a very
thorough Introduction is prefixed, in which the whole of the
published literature is subject to review and investigation. No
actual texts are published, but the translations from the Syriac
are rade with the care that characterises all the Abbé Nau’s work.
The main point in which he differs from ourselves hes i his
over-estimation of a ms. of Ahikar in the Sachau collection (Cod.
Sach. 336), written as late as 1883 in the Tfrabdin, and probably
not from a Syriac original at all, but as a translation from some
other version. It happens that this supposed superior version does
not have the mistake, which commonly characterises the versions
of Ahikar, with regard to the order of the Assyrian kings. It
does not invert Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. In this respect
it stands in line with history, just as the Assuan fragments do; the
natural inference is that some one has corrected the traditional
blunder. Apart from this excellent trait, which need not even
be ancient, I see no reason whatever for laying stress upon a
copy and a version not twenty years old; nor do I think that
M. Nau succeeds in justifying his erratic preference. It is quite an
insufficient argument to affirm that the Sachau Ms., made, perhaps,
from an Arabic translation the day before yesterday, brmgs back
from the dead another Syriac version from which the missing
Arabic is derived! In other respects the edition of M. Nau
is of very high value, full of excellent references, and often very
sound in its critical judgments. He admits that Democritus has
borrowed from the original Ahikar-story, and concludes that it
INTRODUCTION XC1xX
must have been composed in Assyria before the fifth century B.C. ;
and that consequently M. Renan was right in saying that it was
originally written in Aramaic. Apparently M. Nau had reached
these conclusions before making acquaintance with the Assyrian
papyri, which are described in an appendix to the volume.
This volume of Nau’s and the essays by Smend and Vetter are
the chief contributions in recent years to the criticism of Ahikar.
There are, however, one or two other attempts at elucidation, more
or less important, and more or less successful. The problem is
approached on the side of folk-lore, in order to show that the story
of Ahikar contains elements which can be exactly paralleled in
Indian and other popular literature. The result of such a theory,
if established, would be to finally rid the Ahikar legend of any
historical meaning: and it is certain that one can go a long way
toward the proof of the suggested hypothesis: but just at this
point the Assuan papyri, by their relative simplicity, appear to
suggest that there may after all be a historical nucleus.
Suppose, however, that Ahikar should be at once ancient and
unhistorical; then, since the book of Tobit, which is canonical,
quotes Ahikar as historical, the critics of the Catholic school begin
immediately to sound the war-drum. ‘The maxim,’ they say,
‘Quieta non movere can no more be appealed to by the prudent”.’
One would have thought it wiser not to have beat the drum so
vigorously. However, the subject is now to be treated polemically,
as well as critically. The elect champion of the Faith appears to
be M. Cosquin, a folk-lorist of eminence, who devotes two essays
to the subject; the first of these (Revue Bublique, 1899, pp. 53—82)
is entitled La Livre de Tobie et l Histoire du sage Ahikar, and the
second (lc. 1899, pp. 510—5381) is entitled Encore U'Histoure du
sage Ahikar. These two reviews are well worth reading, and
show, at certain points, the strength of the folk-lore method.
The conclusion of the first essay is that Ahikar is unhistorical,
every bit of him; and he is clearly anterior to Tobit. But this
makes no difference to the pious Tridentine; for Tobit may after
1 Editorial note in Revue Biblique, 1899, p. 50.
€ INTRODUCTION
all be an allegory, like the good Samaritan. Can one propose to
take the Good Samaritan out of the Bible, because, perhaps, he
never existed? It will be seen that the writer of the essay
combines modern methods of investigation with foregone con-
clusions, in a manner that is not altogether to the credit of
theological science.
As to the seeond essay, that is direeted in part against myself,
and my theory of a connection between Ahikar and the Acts of the
Apostles in the matter of the death of Judas. It has a real value
apart from the dispute over Judas: for M. Cosquin applies his
folk-lore knowledge to the story of Tobit in order to prove that the
tale is one of a eycle, which express the ineidents attaching to a
Grateful Ghost, who wishes to make return for kindness done to his
corse. ‘This-‘ Mort Reeonnaissant’ supplies all the leading features
of the Tobit story, so that the book has now beeome a fairy tale
used as a vehiele of moral ideas. I am quite satisfied with the
argument and with the conelusion.
As to the question of Judas’ death, and the reconciltation of
Matthew and Luke, M. Cosquin tells us that they cause him no
difficulty. A folk-lorist, we admit, ought to find no diffieulty in
the fact that a story is told two different ways:!
Other interesting diseussions will be found, by M. Théodore
Reinach in Revue des Etudes Juives for 1899 pp. 1—18, entitled
Un eonte Babylonien dans la littérature Juive; by M. Halévy,
under title Tobie et Akhiakar (Paris 1900), and by F. Mare, in
Byzantinische Zeitschrift for 1910, pp. 888—421, under the title,
Die Ueberlieferung des Asopromans: I am sorry that space does
not allow me to analyze or summarize these writings.
THE SLAVONIC VERSION
Translated from the German of Professor V. Jagié.
SINAGRIP was King of Assyria and of the land of Nineveh.
At that time I, Akyrios, was his minister (a learned scribe).
And it was revealed to me by God: “No ehild shall be born to
thee.” I owned more wealth than all men; and I had married a
wife ; my household was well-ordered, and I lived for sixty years
without a child. Then I erected altars, and kindled fires and
said: “OQ Lord my God! if I should die without an heir, what
will men say? ‘Akyrios was a just man, he served God truly.
When he dies, there will be no male offspring to stand at his
grave, and no female offspring to shed tears for him, and he will
have no heir.’ Therefore I beseech thee, O Lord my God! give
me a male offspring, that he may strew dust on my eyes after my
decease.” And the Lord hearkened unto my voice. <A sound
eame down from Heaven: “O Akyrios! I will fulfil all thy
requests, but thou must not ask for a child. Behold, thou hast
a nephew (a sister’s son) Anadan, take him instead of a son.”
When I perceived the voice of the Lord, I said: “O Lord my
God !”
I took my nephew Anadan instead of a son. He was still
very young. I had him brought up at the breast, and fed him
with honey and wine, and I clothed him in silk. and purple.
After he had grown up, I instructed him in every kind of wisdom
and learning. Then the King said to me: “O Akynos! my
L, A. A
yA THE WISE AKYRIOS
counsellor, when thou shalt die in a good old age, where shall
I find another such counsellor?” And I replied: “J have a son,
whom I have instructed in every kind of wisdom and learning.”
The King said: “Bring me thy son, that I may see if I like
him: then I will dismiss thee, that thou mayest spend thine old
age at home.”
I took my son Anadan and brought him to the King. When
the King perceived me, he said: “Blessed be this day, O Akyrios,
which has brought thee to me in good health.” I bowed before
the King and said: “Thou thyself knowest how truly I have
served thee. Be patient a little longer, till thy favour be shewn
to my old age and to the youth of Anadan.” When the King
heard that, he said: “ Because of thy former deserts none other
(save Anadan) shall take thy place.”
I, Akyrios, kept the son with me, and after I had fed him with
good lessons, as with bread and water, I said to him:
1. My son, hearken to my words; receive all instruction with
pleasure and be obedient all the days of thy Ife.
2. If thou hearest aught in the King’s presence or if thou
seest aught in his house, let it remain shut up (rot) in thy heart
and share it with no one. But if thou share it, it may fall on
thee as burning coals; thou wilt get blame to thyself and rue it
afterwards.
3. My son, relate to no one what thou hearest, and reveal to
no one what thou seest. Untie not a bound cord, and tie not
a loosened one.
4. And let this be said to thee, my son: Look not on the
beauty of a woman. Even if thou sacrifice all thy wealth to her,
thou wilt at the last reap reproach and fal] into sin.
5. My son, be not hard, like the bones of men, nor soft as
a sponge.
6. My son, let thine eyes look on the ground and thy voice
be soft. If it were a loud voice alone that decided the event, the
ass could build two houses in a day with his braying.
7. My son, it is better to roll stones with a wise man, than
FROM THE SLAVONIC 3
to drink wine with a fool. Carry on no nonsense with a sensible
man, and reveal not thy wit to a senseless one.
8. My son, be not over sweet, lest they eat thee up, nor
over bitter, lest thy friends run away from thee.
9. My son, if thou hast a wound on thy foot, step not forth
firmly.
10. My son, the rieh man’s son swallowed the serpent. Some
said: “From hunger”; others said: “As medicine},”
11. My son, when a man distinguishes himself, worry him
not; if a mishap oceur to him, rejoice not over it.
12. My son, keep what is thine own; seek not what belongs
to others (or thus: give of what is thine own, but borrow not
from others).
13. My son, venture not on the road with a man who will not
aecept advice, and sit not down at the same table with a deceiver.
14, My son, when a man more highly placed than thyself
falls, exult not above measure; betray not thyself in thy speech
before others who might communicate it to him, for he might
rise higher again and be revenged on thee.
15. My son, approach not a shameless woman, and glance
not at her beauty.
16. My son, ifa friend should have a grudge at thee, or blame
thee, make him weleome to thy bread and wine.
17. My son, the man who despises the law goes towards his
fall, but the just man will rise higher.
18. My son, withdraw not thy son from chastisement: when
a son is chastised, the water is being poured over the vineyard
(the vine ?).
19. My son, hold thy son with a bridle from his ehildhood ; if
thou hold him not tight, he will make thee old before thy time.
20. My son, keep not a chattering slave nor a pilfering one
in the house, lest he eat up thy wealth.
1 According to another version: The poor man’s son swallowed the serpent,
and people said: ‘‘From hunger.” The rich man’s son swallowed the serpent,
and people said: ‘‘ As medicine.”’
4, THE WISE. AKYRIOS
21. My son, hearken not to him who.censureth his friend; he
will expose thy failings likewise to others.
22. My son, if some one meet thee and address thee, answer
him with reserve; an inconsiderate word spoken in haste is re-
pented of afterwards.
23. My son, a liar findeth sympathy at first, but at the last
he is despised and abused. The speech of a liar resembles the
twittering of birds, only the senseless hearken to it.
24. My son, honour thy father, for he bequeaths thee all
his wealth.
25. My son, draw not on thyself the curse of thy father and
thy mother, or thou wilt not live to have any joy in thine own
children.
26. My son, if fierce anger seize thee, say not a word, lest
thou be called senseless,
27. My son, go not unarmed by night, for thou knowest not
whom thou shalt meet.
28. My son, he who is of low origin is despised by all.
29. My son, say not: “My master is stupid, I am sensible.”
30. My son, take in good part the admonition of thy master,
and thou wilt be in favour; trust uot to thine own wisdom; how-
ever much thou mayest have to bear, bear it without uttering evil.
31. My son, be not talkative, or thou wilt be in fault before
thy master.
32. My son, if thou art sent with a message, linger not, lest
another be sent a little while after thee. Let not thy master
say: “Get out of my way,” and thou be sad, but: “Come hither
to me,” and be glad.
33. My son, neglect not to go to church on a holiday.
34. My son, seek out the houses of the deceased; visit them,
and be mindful that thou too must die.
35. My son, if thon hast no horse of thine own, ride not
on a strange one; if it becomes lame, thou wilt be langhed at.
36. My son, if thou hast no bodily hunger, eat not bread, lest
thou appear greedy.
FROM THE SLAVONIC 5
37. My son, take up no quarrel with a man stronger than
thyself; thou canst not know how he will pounce on thee.
38. My son, if thy house be too high, make the walls lower,
and then walk in.
39. My son, if thou receive with good measure, sell not with
scanty measure; say not: “Therein is the gain.” Thatis bad. God,
who knoweth and seeth all, will be angry with thee, and destroy
thy house.
40. My son, swear not in God’s name, lest the number of thy
days be made fewer.
41. My son, go to the mourner and comfort him with (thy)
words ; 1t is worth more than gold and silver.
42. My son, keep thy tongue from evil report and thy hands
from theft.
43. My son, flee from unchastity.
44, My son, if thou hearken unto a wise man, it is as if thou
wert thirsty on a hot day, and didst refresh thyself with cold water.
45. My son, if temptations and afflictions from God befal
thee, be not vexed. It leads to nothing, thou wilt not overcome
thereby, but He will hear thy bad temper and respond to it in
[deed and] truth.
46. My son, judge uprightly and thon wilt be honoured in
thine old age.
47. My son, keep a sweet tongue and open thy mouth to
speak what is good.
48. My son, be not fain to trample on thy neighbour, lest the
like happen to thyself
49, My son, say a word to the wise, and he will take it to
heart; (but) though thou beat a fool with a staff, thou wilt not
bring him to reason.
50. My son, thou mayest send a clever man without m-
structing him much: but if thou send a senseless man, thon
must follow him thyself, lest he bring thee to shame.
51. My son, prove thy friend first with bread and wine, then
may he be admitted to something better.
6 THE WISE AKYRIOS
52. My son, if one bid thee to a feast, appear not at the first
summons; if he call thee the second time}, thou wilt see that he
esteems thee highly, and thou wilt enter his presence with honour.
53. My son, take no reward (for a right judgment), for a
reward dazzles the eyes of the judge.
54. My son, I have tasted gall and bitterness, and it was not
more bitter than poverty; salt and lead seem to be lighter.
55. My son, I have lifted iron and stone, and it seemed
to me easier than when a man learned in the law earries on
a suit against his nearest kin.
56. My son, love thy wife with all thy heart, for she is the
mother of thy children.
57. My son, if there be no oceasion for such a thing in thy
house, set not up a commotion in it, lest thou be exposed in thy
neighbours’ eyes.
58. My son, it is better to listen to a wise man when he is
drunk than to a noodle when he is soher.
59. My son, it is better to be blind of the eyes than in the
heart; a man blind of the eyes grows apt at tapping about and
finds his path at last; a man blind of heart will constantly
decline from the right road and lose himself.
60. My son, it is better for a woman to lose her own son by
death, than to nourish a strange one; for whatever good she does
to him, he rewards her for it with evil.
61. My son, a loyal slave is better than a disloyal free man.
62. My son, a friend who dwells near thee is better than a
brother far off.
63. My son, a good name is more honourable to men than
personal beauty; fame lasts for ever; the beauty of the face fades
at death.
64, My son, a good death is better for a man than a bad life.
65. My son, a sheep’s foot in thine own hand is better than
the whole shoulder in the hand of a stranger ; better 1s a lambkin
near thee than an ox far away; better is a sparrow held tight in
1 Cf. Luke xiv. 17.
FROM THE SLAVONIC 7
the hand than a thousand birds flying about in the air; better
is a hempen robe, that thou hast, than a robe of purple, that
thou hast not.
66. Myson, when thou hast bidden a friend to a feast, welcome
him with a cheerful countenance, that he too may return to his
home in a cheerful mood. When thou givest a dinner, appear not
before thy friend with a gloomy face, lest thy banquet become a
disgrace to thee, whilst thou art considered to be no good man.
67. My son, commend not the one man nor condemn the
other, until thou hast proved the matter; let thy judgment be
given only after ripe deliberation.
68. My son, it is better to lie in fever heat than to live with a
wicked wife. Hold no consultations in thy house (i.e. in presence of
the wicked wife) and share not with her the concerns of thy heart.
69. My son, if thou drink wine, speak little.
70. My son, mock neither at a stupid man nor at a deaf one,
for they are both God’s creatures.
71. My son, seek not to belittle a great saying of thy master,
nor to magnify a trifling one.
72. My son, if thou desirest to say something to somebody,
speak not immoderately, but weigh it well in thy heart and then
say what is needful; for it is better to stumble with the foot
than with the tongue.
73. Myson, if thou chance to be amongst menials, smile not as
thou approachest them ; for a smile gives rise easily to a misunder-
standing, and from a misunderstanding there springs a quarrel,
and from a quarrel come mutual recriminations and scuffles, and
scuffles may result in death, and death is the fulfilment of sin.
74. My son, a lying word is at first heavy as lead and at the
last it floats on the water.
75. My son, if thou wouldest fain put thy friend to the test,
share a secret with him; then in a few days pick a quarrel. If
he betray not thy secret, love him with all thy heart, for he is a
trustworthy friend; but if he prattle about thy secret, turn thy
back on him,
8 THE WISE AKYRIOS
76. Myson, it is better for thee to be robbed than to rob thyself.
77. My son, if thou say a good word for thy friend before
the judge, thou hast snatched a lamb out of the jaws of the
lion.
78. Myson, if thou art going on a journey, count not on the
bread of strangers; but carry thine own loaf with thee, for if thou
hast it not, and art yet a wayfarer, thou wilt incur reproach.
79. My son, if a man who has hated thee die, rejoice not; it
had been better for him to live, and for God to have humbled him,
so that he might have come to thee with a prayer for forgiveness,
and thou wouldst have granted it, and God would have shown
thee favour for its sake.
80. My son, when thou seest an aged man, stand up in his
presence; if he return not thy greeting, thou wilt receive thy
thanks from God for it.
81. My son, if thou hast bidden any one to a feast, worry him
not about other matters, lest thou be considered deceitful.
82. My son, when water runs up-hill, or a bird begins to
fly backwards, when a Negro or a Saracen becomes white and gall
is sweet as fresh honey, then will the stupid man learn sense.
83. My son, if thon art bidden to (the house of) a neighbour,
spy not out the nooks in his chamber, it is not becoming.
84, My son, if God has made a man rich, envy him not, but
shew him respect.
85. My son, if thou enter a house of mourning, talk not of
meats and drinks; and if thou enter a house of gladness, make no
mention of grief.
86. My son, the eyes of a man, like a gushing fountain, are
insatiable and would devour oxen; but when the man dies, they
are filled up with dust.
87. My son, if thou array thyself in a new garment, behave
thyself decently, and envy not another who owns something else ;
he whose clothing is gaudy, his speech should be worthy of respect.
88. My son, whether thou be wealthy or not, es not in
sorrow ; what profit can sorrow bring thee ?
FROM THE SLAVONIC 9
89. My son, if thou hast wealth, do not allow thyself to be
tormented by hunger or thirst. If thou diest, another will enjoy
thy wealth, and thou shalt have toiled in vain.
90. My son, if a poor man should steal something, make
allowance for him.
91. My son, if thou go to a wedding, tarry not too long, lest
they shew thee to the door before it be over.
92. My son, if a dog leave its master in the lurch, and follow
another, the latter will look round, take up a stone, and fling it at
him; and just the same (will happen to him) who leaves thee to
run after another.
93. My son, if thy neighbour shew himself hostile to thee,
cease not to meet him in a loving way, lest he carry out a design
against thee when thou art not aware of it.
94. Myson, when a man who hath a grudge at thee is fain
to do thee a good turn, trust him not too readily, lest he outwit
thee and vent his wrath on thee.
95. My son, if any one is punished for a fault, say not that
he is punished without reason, lest thou incur the same penalty.
96. My son, it were better to be thrashed by a wise man,
than to be anointed by a foolish one; for even if a wise man
cudgel thee, he will meditate as to how he may comfort thee,
while the fool will demand gold from thee for one anointing.
97, \[Let thy first axiom be the fear of God. Then be quick
to obey and circumspect in answering. Be patient in anger.
98. My son Anadan, if thy master say to thee: “Come
near,” rejoice not thereat; and also if he say: “Get away from
me,” be not dejected with grief because of 1t.
99. My son Anadan, be not a drunkard; better is a lunatic
than a man who is a slave to drink; for the one raves only when
it is the new moon, but the other rages continually.
100. My son Anadan, if thou sittest as a guest at a friend’s
1 The sayings which are enclosed in square brackets appear only in two MSS.
of South Slavonic derivation, and of the fifteenth century.
L. A. B
10 THE WISE AKYRIOS
table, brood not over something evil about him, lest the bread in
thy mouth taste bitter.
101. My son Anadan, when people are seating themselves
at the table, press not forward, lest thou be pushed out; and
stay not behind, lest thou be forgotten.
102. My son Anadan, if a sorrow befall thee, call in a wise
man to comfort thee: a confused mind cannot utter a single
clear word.
103. My son Anadan, it is easier to ride over a broad field on
a horse without a saddle, than to ask advice from a senseless man.
104. My son Anadan, if thou seek to cherish thy perishing
body and neglect thy soul, thou wilt be like the man who
leaves a noble wife in the lurch to cherish a slave girl.
105. My son Anadan, if thou strive after earthly things, and
neglect heavenly things, thou wilt be hke the man who has
painted a husbandman on the wall, instead of getting him to till
the land and sow the corn.
106. My son Anadan, if we were to live a hundred years and
more, it would just be like one day.
107. Myson Anadan, however much it may grieve us to see
a good man hanging dead from his horse, it vexes us quite as
much to see a bad spirit in a fine body.
108. My son Anadan, a just judge may be likened to a good
sieve ; as a good sieve separates the chaff from the grain, so a just
judge separates the wrong from the right.
109. My son Anadan, if thou wouldst have a large retinue,
keep a sweet tongue and liberal hands.
110. Myson Anadan, it is better to dwell in a hut as a just
man, than in a palace as a guilty one.
111. Myson Anadan, neglect not to nourish thy mind with
books, for it 1s said: ‘‘As.a fence cannot stand against the wind
without support, so a man cannot cultivate wisdom in his old age
without books,”
112. Myson Anadan, this is the way of the world: if a poor
man speak prudently, he is not listened to; he is called a fool
FROM THE SLAVONIC ct
and talks nonsense. But if a man is rich, he is listened to,
even if he talk rubbish. “Be quiet,” they say, “for a prince is
speaking.” They treat him as a sage for the sake of his riches.
113. Myson Anadan, trust not a wicked woman. Honey drops
from her mouth, but afterwards it is bitter and poisonous gall.
Remember, my son, the wife of Samson, who robbed her husband
of his hair and his eyes, and delivered him over to his enemies; he
dragged down the palace on himself by reason of pain and hurled
both friend and foe to destruction.
114. My son Anadan, it is better to be too cautious than
to be rash.
115. My son Anadan, if a corpse lie uncovered on thy path,
cover it not; if it is covered up, expose it not.
116. My son Anadan, my soul can suit itself to everything.
There are only three things that it cannot bear : (1) A faithless man.
He who is faithless, is disloyal to God, to his parents, to his master,
to his friend and to his wife. (2) A poor, but proud man. Of
what is he proud? What does he connt on? (38) A man who
shews his master no respect. Ifa tom-cat be thy master, thou
hadst better stroke his beard; for he who holds the head by the
crown, can turn it as he listeth.
117. Myson Anadan, what has been unjustly got, will go lightly.
118. My son Anadan, as water dries quickly off the earth,
so let not a backbiter remain near thee.
119. My son Anadan, keep thy hands from stealing, thy
month from lying and thy body from lewdness; above all beware
of a married woman.
120. My son Anadan, if thou beg for anything from God,
neglect not to comfort the sorrowing, to clothe the naked, to feed
the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to cheer the unhappy
with good and sweet words. A good word is worth more than
silver or precious gold.
121. My son Anadan, seek not to have the goods of another ;
in a few days thine own wealth will pass into other hands.
122. My son Anadan, it is better for a man to eat green
12 THE WISE AKYRIOS
saltless herbs in peace, with joy and happiness, amidst cheerful-
ness and laughter, than many tit-bits with repugnance and
wrangling, sorrow and care.
123. My son Anadan, put not from thee thy first (old) friend,
lest the new one leave thee in the lurch. ]
124. My son, receive with all thy heart what I have taught
thee, and repay me with interest from thine own stock and from
- mine.
And when I had instructed my nephew Anadan about every-
thing, I said to myself: “My son Anadan will lay my teaching
to heart, and I will present him to the King in place of myself.”
I never dreamt that Anadan would give no heed to my words.
I was burning with zeal to instruct him, and he was plotting my
downfall and forming plans against me.
I led him to King Sinagrip, that he might do him service, and
the King said: “O Akyrios, blessed be thou for bringing me thy
son to-day. If J am pleased with him, thou shalt be honoured
in thine old age.” J went home and never once dreamt that my
son had dug a pit under me.
To wit: Anadan wrote two letters, one to King Nalon: “I,
Akyrios, send greeting to Nalon, King of Persia. On the day
when thou receivest this letter, be ready with thy whole army.
I will deliver over to thee the land of Assyria, and thou shalt get
it into thy power without fighting.” He wrote another letter
to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, in which he said: “ When this letter
comes into thy hands, be ready on the plain of Egypt, on the 25th
of August. J will deliver up to thee the land.of Nineveh with all
its cities, and thou shalt possess it without the smallest sacrifice.”
Just at that time the King (Sinagrip) had dismissed his
warriors, and was abiding alone; but Anadan had traced both
the letters in my handwriting, and had sealed them with my seal,
and he waited for the time to put them into the King’s hands.
Then he wrote a letter containing the following: “From King
Sinagrip to my counsellor Akyrios. My counsellor, on the day
when thou shalt receive this letter, assemble all my warriors, and
FROM THE SLAVONIC 13
hold thyself in readiness on the plain of Egypt, on August 25th.
The moment I come, place the soldiers in battle array and
ready for fighting, so that the ambassadors of Pharaoh may see
my warlike might.”
This letter was given by my son Anadan to two young slaves,
and sent to me, ostensibly as if from the King.
Then Anadan appeared before the King and shewed him those
two letters which he had himself written, and spake thus: “These
are writings! of Akyrios, my father. I would not follow his advice,
but brought the documents?! to thee; for I was eating thy bread,
and it is not fitting for me to have an evil design against thee.
Hearken unto me, O King! thou hast distinguished my father
Akyrios before all thy other chiefs; and see now what he has
written against thee and against thy realm.” And as he thus
spake, he handed the writings! to the King. The King was quite
upset and said: “O Lord my God, what evil have I done to
Akyrios ?: why does he cherish so much evil in his heart against
me and against my kingdom?” Then said Anadan: “O my King!
perhaps he has been calumniated; therefore thou shouldst betake
thyself in the month of August to the Egyptian plain and see if
it be true.” The King gave heed to Anadan and came to the
Egyptian plain, my son Anadan being with him, and he saw that
I, Akyrios, according to the above mentioned writing, had placed
the’ soldiers ready for battle without ever dreaming that my son
Anadan had dug a pit under me. When the King saw me all
prepared for fighting, he was seized with a great terror, for he saw
that what Anadan had said was quite true. And Anadan said to
the King: “Just see! my father Akyrios has done this! But do
thou go away and return home. I will go to my father Akyrios,
frustrate his evil designs, persuade him and bring him to thee.
Then thou wilt pass sentence on him according to his deeds.”
The King returned home, but Anadan came to me, saluted me,
and said: “My greetings to Akyrios my father. The King sends
1 In the Slavonic text the singular is here used, although two letters have been
spoken of above.
14 THE WISE AKYRIOS
thee word: ‘Thou hast won my favour this day, since thou hast
arrayed my generals before me according to my commands and
hast distinguished thyself before the ambassadors of Pharaoh.
But now come to me thyself’” And in obedience to these words
I left the army and went with my son to the King. When the
King saw me, he said: “Art thou come to me, Akyrios, my
counsellor and minister? I have heaped fame and honours upon
thee, yet thou hast taken up arms against me.” And while the
King thus spake, he handed me the letters, and I saw that they
were like my writing and were sealed with my seal. As I unfolded
them and read, my joints were loosened, and my tongue was tied ;
I sought for a wise inspiration and could find none, and I was in
a great fright.
My son Anadan, whom I had introduced to the King, then
attacked me suddenly, saying: “O thou senseless old man, why
dost thou not reply to the King? Where is thy strength? where
is thy wit?” And he said to the King: “Pass sentence on him,
O King!” But the King said: “It is for thee,O Anadan, to pass
sentence on him according to justice and to his deeds.” Then
said Anadan: ‘“Akyrios, my natural father, thy fate has now
overtaken thee, according to thy deeds.” And my son Anadan
spake thus to me: “It is the King’s command that thy hands
should be bound, and thy feet laid in fetters; then thy head shall
be struck off, and carried a hundred ells away from thy body.”
When I heard the answer of the King, I fell down before him,
prostrated myself and said: “O my ruler! mayest thou live for
ever! why wilt thou put me to death? Thou hast heard no answer
from my mouth, yet God knows that in nothing have I sinned
against thy royal power. Now shall thy sentence be accomplished ;
butif it be thy will, command that I be put to death in my own
house, so that my corpse may be buried.” The King gave this
command and I was delivered over to a man with whom I had a
friendship of long standing, and he led me away to be put to
death. I sent messengers to my house in advance and told my
wife: “Come forth to meet me and bring with thee maidens and
FROM THE SLAVONIC 15
the whole retinne; let them be all dressed in robes of velvet, that
they may weep for me, for I am about to suffer death according
to the King’s decree. But first prepare a feast, that when I enter
my house with the men of my escort, I may partake of bread and
wine and then meet my death.” My wife did everything, just as
I had commanded her. She came forth to meet me, led me into
the house, and when the table was set before us, the people began
to eat and drink, and they all got drunk and went to sleep one
after the other.
Then I, Akyrios, heaved a sigh from the bottom of my heart,
and said to my friend who was about to lead me to execution:
“ My trusty friend, look up to heaven, shew in this hour that thou
fearest God, and remember the friendship in which we lived
together for a long time. Remember too, how the King once
delivered thee into my hands to be put to death for a supposed
crime; but I saved thee and protected thee as an innocent man,
till the guilty one was discovered by the King. Therefore put me
not now to death, when I find myself in the same plight, but be
gracious to me and preserve me as I once did thee. But thou
shalt in no wise be afraid of the King. For there is a man lying
in the prison of the same age as myself, like me in face and well
deserving of death. Take off my clothes and put them on him,
lead him out, strike off his head and put it a hundred ells away
from the body, as the King hath commanded.”
When my friend heard these words, he was inconsolable, and
said: “Terrible is my dread of the King, how can | turn a deaf ear
to hiscommands? Yet from love to thee I will do as thou hast said ;
for it is written: ‘Thon shalt give up thy head for thy friend.’
I will keep thee and preserve thee. If the King detect us, I will
perish along with thee.” And having thus spoken, he stripped off
my clothes and put them on the prisoner, then he led him out
and said to the escort: “Behold the execution of Akyrios.” And
as the people came near to me, he struck off the man’s head and
carried it a hundred yards away from the body. They did not
know that another person’s head had been struck off, and a report
16 THE WISE AKYRIOS
was spread through the whole land of Assyria and Nineveh, that
the minister Akyrios had been killed. Then my friend and my
wife prepared a dwelling for me underground, four ells broad and
four ells deep; thither they brought me bread and water: and
my friend went forth to inform King Sinagrip that Akyrios was
beheaded, and all the people who heard it wept.
Then said the King to Anadan: “Go home and weep for thy
father.” But when Anadan went home he had no thought of
mourning, nor did he brood over his father’s death ; but he gathered
together even jugglers in my house and began to hold great feasts
and to buffet those of my slaves who had shewn their good-will
to me; and demanded that my consort should serve him. But I,
Akyrios, who was pining in prison, heard all that my son did,
and sighed bitterly with my whole heart, but could do nothing to
prevent it. My friend returned and paid me a visit, and stepping
down to me tried to console me. I said to my friend: “Pray to
God for me, and say ‘O Lord thou just God! have mercy upon Thy
servant in prison, for Thy servants put their trust in Thee. Lo,
now is Akyrios buried in the earth and seeth not the hght; but
Thou, O Lord my God! let Thy glance fall upon Thy servant,
lead him up from the deepest of pits and hearken unto his
prayers. ”
When the Egyptian King Pharaoh heard that Akyrios was
killed he was greatly delighted, and sent a missive to King
Sinagrip, in which he said: “From the Egyptain King Pharaoh
to the Assyrian King, greeting! I desire thee to build a castle
for me, which shall be neither in heaven nor upon earth; send me
clever workmen, who will carry this out according to my wish,
and answer me likewise a few questions in a wise manner. If
thou wilt do it as I wish, thou shalt receive a three years’ tribute
from me; but if these people do not answer to my requirements,
then thon must cede to me a three years’ tribute from thy
country.”
When this missive was read aloud to King Sinagrip he
gathered together all his wise men and caused the letter of King
FROM THE SLAVONIC 17
Pharaoh to be read to them, and said: “ Which of you will go to
the land of Egypt, to King Pharaoh?” And they replied to him :
“Q King, thou thyself knowest that in thine own days and in
the days of thy father, Akyrios managed every matter requiring
prudence. Now there is his son Anadan, who has been instructed by
him in all branches of wisdom; let him go there.” When Anadan
heard this, he cried with a loud voice in the King’s presence :
“Indeed, that is what I cannot accomplish! others may go.” At
this speech the King became very sad; he came down from his
golden throne, wrapped himself in sackcloth, and began to lament,
saying: “O Akyrios, why have I killed thee, my wisest counsellor,
giving ear to a silly boy? I slew thee in one hour, and now I cannot
find thy peer. Where can I find thee again, O Akyrios, whom I have
killed in my rashness ?”
When my friend heard these words of the King, he said to him:
“O King, no one ought to transgress the commands of his master ;
but now thou mayest treat me as it pleaseth thee. I have saved
Akyrios, and he is alive.” Then the King answered and said:
“O Lord my God! If what thou sayest be true, and if I see Akyrios
again, [ will give thee one hundred baskets of gold.” And my friend
replied: “On thy word of honour, wilt thou do him no harm?” The
King said: “On my word of honour,” and he commanded that
Akyrios should be brought to him.
. And I, Akyrios, appeared before the King, and did obeisance.
The hair of my head reached down to my girdle ; my body (face?) had
become changed under the ground: and my nails were like the claws
of an eagle. When the King perceived me, he burst into tears and
felt ashamed in my presence, and after a little while he said to me:
“QO Akyrios, it is not I who have sinned against thee, but thy son
Anadan.” And I said: “O my lord! thou hast found out for thy-
self that I have never offended against thee.” And he sent me
to my house, where I remained for twenty days; then I came again
into the King’s presence, my body being as 1t was wont to be.
And the King said to me: “ Hast thou heard, O Akyrios, what
sort of a missive the Egyptian King has directed against the land
L, A, ¢
18 THE WISE AKYRIOS
of Assyria? All have been seized with terror, and many people
have run away from me.” And I said to him: “It was my wont
in the old days to aet thus: if a man was overtaken by any kind
of calamity, I came and set him free. Now they had heard that
I was dead, and so they seattered themselves abroad. Do thou
333
command that the people be told: ‘ Akyrios is alive.’” The people
had eome together because of Pharach’s missive, and I, Akyrios,
said to the King: “Do not be anxious, O King! I will answer him
and I will also win the three years’ tribute from him and bring it
to thee.” When the King heard this he was greatly delighted,
and assembled his wise men who were...... him, and bestowed
gifts on them. And to my friend who had given me back to him,
he assigned a place above that of all the others.
Then I, Akyrios, sent word to my own house, saying, “Seek
out two eaglets and feed them; command my faleoners to teach
them how to soar; make a cage and seek out a bold boy amongst
my domestics; put him in the eage with the eagles and train
them all to fly. ‘The child must ery: ‘ Bring lime and stones; look!
the workmen are ready. And tie cords on their feet.” And the
slaves carried out my orders, and the people of Assyria and
Nineveh returned to their homes. When the eagles were quite
trained, I said to the King: “ Now send me to King Pharaoh.” He
sent me thither and 1] took warriors with me. And before I had
yet come to the city of Pharaoh, 1 made trial with the eagles’:
and I saw that it was all as I approved. Then I proceeded into
the town and sent a messenger to King Pharaoh: “ Agreeably to
the missive, which thou hast addressed to King Sinagrip, we are
here.” ‘The King gave his commands and appointed me a dwelling,
then he summoned me before him, and enquired my name; and
I did not tell him it, but said: “My name is Obikam (Abesam),
Iam one of his? grooms.” When Pharach heard that, he was seized
with anger and said: “ Am I then meaner than thy King? why has
1 This is not clear in the original text. Perhaps it is: ‘I decided where the
eagles were to be kept, and I saw that it was all as I approved,”
2 i.e. Sinagrip’s,
FROM THE SLAVONIC 19
he not sent some one better to me?” And Ianswered: “The better
ones were sent to the better: and I was got for thee with difficulty.”
The King dismissed me to my retinue, saying: “Now go away
from here, and come back to-morrow to answer my questions.
If thou dost not answer them, I will give thy body as a prey
to the fowls of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth.”
On the morrow the King commanded me to be brought before
him. He sat upon a golden throne, and was dressed in a robe
of red purple, and his grandees were in robes of many hues.
He asked me: “ Unto what am I and unto what are my grandees
like?” I said to him: “Thou, O King! art lke the sun, and thy
grandees are like the sunbeams.’ And after a short silence the
King said to me: “Thy King is witty, and so art thou.” He
put some other questions to me: now he was likened unto the
moon and his grandees unto the stars, and now unto the shimmer
of the forest and his grandees unto the colour of the grass. All
these questions and others like them I answered to his satisfaction.
At last the King said to me: “I sent the ambassadors unto thy King,
in order that a castle might be built for me between the heaven and
the earth.” Then I caused the two eagles to be brought, and in
the presence of the King and of his people I let them soar aloft
with the boy on them. And as the eagles sprang up, the boy
cried, as he had been taught: “See! the workmen are ready;
bring lime and stones, that they may not tarry.” The King said:
“Who can climb up to that height?” and I replied: “I have
brought the workmen up, but you must get lime and stones. But
if you do not get them, the blame will not be ours.” And again I,
Akyrios, cried: “Carry up lime and stones.” But those people
stood wondering how they could get the stones up. I, Akyrios,
took a stick and began to beat his noblemen, so that they all ran
away. Then Pharach got angry and said: “Why do you put me
to this shame? why do you strike my people without cause?
Who can take stones and lime up there?” I replied to him:
“Is it you or I who is to do it, seeing that you began it? If
King Sinagrip wished, he could build two castles in one day.”
20 THE WISE AKYRIOS
Then he said: “Go away from me, and let me see thee again to-
morrow morning.”
I returned and he said to me: “Is it thou, Akyrios? now,
answer me this: What is the reason that when the asses in your
country bray, our mares foal?” When I heard that, I ordered
my servants to catch a live pole-cat and bring it to me. They
went and brought it. Then I said to them: “Thrash it, so that
the whole land of Egypt may hear.” And they began to strike it.
When the people. heard it, they said to Pharaoh: “ Akyrios is
making merry over our gods.” When Pharaoh heard that, he
summoned me and said: “ What art thou about, Akyrios?” And
I replied: “This pole-cat has done a great deal of mischief. King
Sinagrip had given me a bird, which I carried on my hand, and it
sang to me, at whatever hour I wanted; and it waked me up, that
I might appear before the King at the right hour. Now this
pole-cat went last night and throttled my cock and returned
hither again.” ‘Then Pharaoh said to me: “I see, Akyrios, that
thou hast grown old and thy mind is weak. There are a thousand
stadia. between Egypt and the land of Assyria; how could this
pole-cat have bitten off the head of thy cock in one night?”
I, Akyrios, said to him: “ And how could any one hear when the
asses bray in Assyria and thy mares foal here? since there are a
thousand stadia between Egypt and the land of Assyria.”
When Pharaoh heard this speech, he was astonished and said
to me: “ Answer me this riddle: What is this ? an oak, and on the
oak twelve pillars, and on each of the pillars thirty wheels, and in
each wheel two. mice, one black and one white.” And I said to
him: ‘‘ Well, all the shepherds know it in our country,” and this is
how I answered the question: “The oak is the year; the twelve
pillars are twelve months; the thirty wheels are the thirty days
in the month; and the two mice, one white and one black, are the
day and the night.”
Again Pharaoh said to me: “Twist me a rope of sand.” I said
to him: “Command thy slaves to bring one out of thy palace of
the right shape and I will make it at once.” Pharaoh said:
FROM THE SLAVONIC 21
“TI can give no heed to thy word; do thou as I have told thee.”
And I, Akyrios, considered in my heart and then I bored: through
the wall opposite to where the sun was, then I took the sand and
shook it into the hole, and the sunbeam seemed furrowed like a
rope. And I said to Pharaoh: “Command thy slaves to coil up
the rope, so that I may twist another on the same spot.” When
Pharaoh heard this, he smiled and said: “Blessed be thou, O
Akyrios, for this great wisdom of thine.” And he prepared a
great feast and gave me three years’ tribute of the land of Egypt
and dismissed me to my King.
When King Sinagrip heard of my return, he came forth to meet
me with very great joy, and said to me: “ What good dost thou
wish me to do thee?” I said to him: “Give these presents to my
friend who saved me, but deliver up to me my son Anadan, who has
forgotten my teachings, with the former warnings he has had and all
the philosophy.” Then they brought him to me and the King said:
“There is thy nephew Anadan, I deliver him up to thee; do with
him what thou wilt.” I brought him back home with me, and flung
an iron chain round his neck and put his feet in the stocks and
began to beat him and to torture him. I gave him, too, only
scraps of bread and some water for food, and said to my slave, who
was called Nagubil: “Write down what I shall say to Anadan.”
My son Anadan, I set thee on the throne of honour and
thou didst fling me into the mire. Thou wast to me like the
goat which. was feeding on fustic, and the fustic said toit: “ Why
dost thou feed on me, O goat! with what will they cleanse thy
hide?” And the goat said: “Iwill eat thy leaves off, and thy
roots will cleanse my hide.”
Thou hast been to me, O my son! like a man who shot an
arrow up to heaven. The arrow certainly did not reach heaven, but
the man was guilty of a sin.
Thou hast been to me, O my son! like the man who saw that
his friend was in a fury, and he poured water over him. My son,
thou hadst the intention of taking my place; but God would not
hearken to thy wicked proposals.
29 THE WISE AKYRIOS
My son, thou hast been to me like the wolf who met the donkey
and said: “I greet thee, O donkey !” but it said: “A like greeting
should be given to my master, who fastened me so badly (i.e. so
that I can get free and run into the open), and now thou wilt
gobble me up.”
My son, thou hast been to me like the trap to which there
came a hare and asked: “ What art thou doing here?” It said
to him: “TI offer prayers to God.” “What hast thou got in thy
mouth?” It said: “A little loaf” The hare came closer and was
caught: then he said: “Thy loaf is bad, and God accepteth not
thy prayers.”
My son, thou art like the stag that held his head too high and
broke his horns.
My son, thou hast been to me like the kettle for which they
forged a golden chain while it was never free from soot itself.
My son, thou hast been to me like the apple-tree that grew
over the water. How much fruit soever it bore, the water carried
it away.
My son, thou hast been to me like the pole-cat to whom they
said: “Give up stealing.” But he said: “If I had eyes of gold,
and hands of silver, I could not give it up.”
I have seen a foal destroying its mother.
My son, I brought thee up. I nourished thee with mead and
wine, and thou didst not even give me water.
My son, I anointed thee with precious ointment, and thou
didst befoul my body with earth.
My son, thou hast been to me like the mole that crept out and
lay mn the sun; an eagle came and carried it away.
Then my son said: “Say no more, my lord! but have mercy
on me. Men sin even against God and they are forgiven. I will
groom thy horses and be herd of thy swine.”
My son, thou hast been to me as when they said to the wolf:
“Why dost thou follow the track of the sheep, and let their dust
fill thine eyes?” But he said: “The dust of the sheep is whole-
some for my eyes.”
FROM THE SLAVONIC 23
My son, they taught the wolf his alphabet, and they said to
him: “Say A, B.” But he said: “ Buck, kid?.”
My son, I taught thee what 1s good, and thou didst meditate
evil against me; nevertheless God does only good and helps the
upright to victory.
They put the head of an ass on a dish and it rolled in the
ashes, and they said to the head: “Thou art thinking of nothing
good, for thou dost shun a token of honour.”
My son, it hath been said: “He to whom thou hast given
birth, call him thy son, the alien is a slave.”
In that hour Anadan died. Yes, my brethren, whoso doeth
good, shall meet with good: and whoso digs a pit for another,
shall fall into it himself.
Here endeth the tale of Akynos. Glory be unto our God for
ever and ever. Amen.
1 See note, page 160.
Ay Se Gs.
THE MAXIMS AND WISDOM OF KHIKAR.
From the Armenian Version.
THE maxims and wisdom of Khikar, which the children of men
1 learn. In the times and in the reign of Seneqarim King of
Nineveh and of Asorestan, I Khikar Notary of Senegarim the
2 King took! sixty wives and builded me sixty palaces. And I
3 Khikar was sixty years of age, and I had not a son. Then I went
in to the gods with many offerings; I lit a fire before the gods
and cast incense? upon it, and presented my offerings and sacri-
ficed victims, kneeled down and prayed, and thus spake in my
prayer.
4 O my lords and gods, Belshim and Shimil and Shamin, ordain
and give to me male seed. For lo, Khikar dieth alive. And
what say men? That Khikar though alive and wise and clever is
dead, and there is no son of his to bury him, nor daughter to
bewail him. I have no heir after my death. Not even if a son
should spend ten talents in the last day, would he exhaust my
riches. But (I ask merely) that he may cast dust with his hands
npon me, in order that I may not remain unremembered.
5 Then there was a voice from the gods and they said:
6 Khikar, there is not ordained seed for thee. But thou shalt
take Nathan’, thy sister’s son, and bring him up as thy son, and
he shall pay thee back thy cost of rearing him‘.
1 Can. thus: ‘acquired me slaves and handmaids and many possessions. I[
builded’ ete.
2 Add ‘ of sweet odour’ 58 and Edjm.
3 So the better Arm. mss. The inferior read Nadan.
4 So Canon. Others have ‘pay thee back thy name,’ See note on Arm. text.
THE MAXIMS AND WISDOM OF KHIKAR 25
And when I heard this from the gods, I took Nathan my 7
sister's son; one year old was he, and I clad him in byssus and
purple; and a gold collar did I bind around his neck; and like a
king’s son I decked him out with ornaments. And I gave him to 8
drink milk and honey, and laid him to sleep on my eagles and
doves, until he was seven years of age. Then I began to teach 9
him writing and wisdom and the art of knowledge and the
answering of dispatches, and the returns of contradictory speeches.
And by day and by night I ceased not to instruct him; and I
sated him with my teaching, as it were with bread and water.
Then saith the king unto me: Khikar, my Notary and wise 10
one, I know that thou art grown old; and after thy death, who is
there to discharge ably and wisely the affairs of our kingdom ?
And [ am very grieved at this thought. And I said to him: 11
O King, live for ever. There is my son, who is superior to me and
is more clever. And the king says: Bring him unto me, that I 12
may behold him. And when I had brought him and stood him
before the king, he beheld him and said: In his days may Khikar
be blessed, because in his lifetime he hath led and stood before
me his son, and may he himself be at rest.
I bowed my head to my lord, and taking Nathan I led him 13
into my dwelling and thus spake in my teaching’.
1. Son, if thou hear any word in the royal gate, make it toc. ii.
die and bury it in thy heart, and to no one divulge it. The knot
that is sealed do thou not loose, and that which 1s loosed do thou
not tie. And that which thou dost see, tell not; and that which
thou hearest, reveal it not.
2. Son, raise not up thine eyes to look on a lovely woman,
rouged and antimonied. Desire her not in thy heart. For if
thou shouldest give her all thy riches, thou‘ dost get nothing the
1 Canon adds: ‘give ear to my conversation and precept. Write it on thy
seal, and forget it not; that the years of thy life may be plentiful, and that in
glory and wealth thou mayest reach old age.’ No other Arm. source has such an
addition, which however distantly resembles the Slavonic and Syriac.
° Bod='thou art not in any way benefited by her more than to be condemned
by the God of just judgements and by mankind.’ Canon = ‘thou wilt not get
L. A, D
26 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
more out of her; but art eondemned by God and by mankind.
For she is like unto a sepulchre which is fair on the upper side
and below is full of the rottenness and bones of the dead.
8. Son, be not like the olive-tree, which is first to bloom and
last to ripen its fruit. But be like the mulberry, which is last to
bloom and first to ripen its fruit.
4. Son, it 1s better with a wise man to carry stones, than
with a foolish man to drink wine.
5. Son, with wise men be not a fool, and with fools be not
thou wise.
6. Son, be thou the companion of a wise man, so that thou
become wise as he is; but do not become the companion of a
senseless man and of a fool, lest like them thou be called a fool.
7. Son, pour out thy wine, and drink it not with the senseless
and with the lawless, lest thou be despised by them’.
8. Son, be thou not over sweet, so that they swallow thee
down, nor over bitter, so that they spit thee out. But do thou
be gentle, tranquil in the works of thy paths and in all thy words.
9. Son, while the boot is on thy foot, tread down the thorns
and make a path for thy feet®
10. Son, a rich man hath eaten a serpent, and they say
it is medicine for him. A poor man? hath eaten it, and they
say that he ate it out of hunger. Eat thy own portion in peace’,
and cast not thy eye on that of thy companion; and with one
that is without fear go not on a journey; and with the senseless
do thou not eat bread.
11. Son, if thou seest thy enemy fallen, do not make a scoff
at him; for if he get up again, he requiteth thee evil5.
12. Son, the lawless man falleth by his evil deeds, but the
just man is raised by his good deeds.
anything more than thy own sin and shame from men and judgement from God,’
omitting the rest. 1 Canon and Edjm. =‘ despised like them.’
2 Canon, ordotz ‘ for thy sons’: the other mss have otitz ‘for thy feet.’
3 Lit. ‘a poor man’s son’: It is a Semitism derived from the Syriac. Bod.
omits ‘son.’ 4 Ven, and Canon add ‘in peace’: Bod. and 58 omit.
5 Ven. adds: ‘and there is continual il]-will,’
FROM THE ARMENIAN 27
13. Son, go not near a senseless and backbiting woman, that
thou be not despised by her!; and thou art made a mock of, and
she robs thee.
14. Son, spare not the rod to thy son; for the rod is to
children as the dung in the garden; and as the tie and seal
fastening the packet, and as the tether on the foot of the ass, so is
the rod profitable to the child. For if thou strike him with a rod
once or twice, he is rendered sensible quietly, he does not die’.
But if thou leave him to his own will, he becomes a thief; and
they take him to the gallows and to death, and he becomes unto
thee a reproach and breaking of heart*.
15. Son, train thy son in hunger and thirst, in order that in
humility he may lead his life.
16. Son, receive not any who shall repeat to thee the (word)
of an enemy, for they will repeat thy word.
17. Son‘, at first thou art fond of a false man’, but in the
end he becomes hateful to thee. For a false word is like a fat
quail; but he that is foolish swallows it down.
18. Son, love the father who begat thee, and earn not the
curses of thy father and mother; to the end that thou mayest
rejoice in the prosperity of thy own sons.
19. Son, without a weapon go not on a journey by night’,
lest thy enemy meet thee, and thou be destroyed.
20. Son, as a tree is enjoyable to see for its fruit and
branches, and the mountains are wooded with the cedars, in the
same way are enjoyable to behold man and wife’ and son and
brother and kinsman and friend, and all families.
1 The Arm.=by them. If that be read, we should turn woman into the plural.
2 Bod, =‘ once or twice, he is quieted, but does not die.” I render the Venice
text which is attested by Canon.
3 Canon here adds in agreement with the Syriac and Slavonic these two precepts:
Son, make thy child obedient, while he is small and pliant, lest he come into open
conflict with thee; and thou be undone by his injury, and win the curses of strangers
because of his disobedience. Son, acquire for thyself a sturdy ass and a strong-
hoofed horse and an ox short in neck. And desire not a runaway slave, or one
petulant of tongue, or a quarrelsome thief, 4 58 omits this adage.
» So Bod., 56: Ven.= ‘at first (one) loves a false man.
6 Canon adds ‘by night’ with the Slavonic. The other sources omit with the
Syriac. 7 Ven. omits ‘and wife. The other sources with Canon add it.
28 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
21. Son, one who hath not wife or son or brother or kinsman
or friend is in the long years despised, and is like unto a tree that
is in the cross ways, and all who pass by it pluck off her leaves
and break down her branches.
22. Son', say not thus: My lord is foolish and I am wise,
but bear with him in his folly; and thou wilt keep thyself with
a wise man, until some other one shall praise thee.
23. Son, say ill to no one; and be thou not evil-tongued
in the presence of thy lord, that thou be not contemned by him.
24. Son, go not astray on the day of thy sacrifice, for fear lest
the Lord be displeased with thy sacrifice*
25. Son, quit not the scene of mourning and repair unto the
wedding; for death lies ahead of all, and the punishment is
great.
26. Son, put not on thy finger a gold* rig which is not
thine; nor clothe thee in byssus and purple that is not thine.
Neither mount a horse that is not thine, since the onlookers who
know it will make mock at thee‘.
27. Son, eat not bread that is not thine own, even though
thou be very hungry.
28. Son, if a man be stronger than thyself, have no con-
troversy with him, lest he slay thee.
29. Son, crush and consume the evil out of thy heart, and
it is well for thee with God and man, and thou art holpen by
the will of God.
30. Son, if thy doorposts be loftily built to heaven as it were
seven ells, whenever thou enterest, bow thy head.
31. Son, take not from others with a big weight and give
back to them with a little weight, and say: I have made a profit.
For God allows it not, but will be wroth; and thou wilt die of
starvation.
82. Son, swear not false, that of thy days there be no fail®.
1 58 omits this adage. 2 '58 adds ‘ which thou offerest.’
8 58 adds ‘or silver.’ 4 Bod. and 58 add ‘when they recognize it.’
6 Bod. and 58 add ‘upon the earth.’
FROM THE ARMENIAN 29
33. Son, give ear unto the laws of God, and be not afraid of the
evil (one), for the commandment of God is the rampart of man.
34. Son, rejoice thou not in the number of thy children, and
in their deficiency be not distressed.
35. Son, children and possessions are bestowed by God. The
rich man is made poor, the poor man is enriched; the humble
is exalted, and the exalted is humbled.
36. Son, if lofty be the lintels of thy house, and thy friend
be sick, say not: What shall I send him? but go on foot and
see him with thy eyes; for that is better for him than a thousand
talents of gold and silver.
37. Son, in reward for evil-speaking receive not gold and
silver, for it 1s a death-fraught deed and very evil. And shed
not just blood unrighteously, lest thy blood be shed in return for
his blood.
38. Son, keep thy tongue from evil speaking and thine eye
from immodest glances, and thine hand from stealing; and it will
be well for thee with God and man. For whether it be gold or
little things that one steals, the punishment and the slaying is
one and the same.
39. Son, commit not adultery with thy friend’s wife, lest
God be angry and others commit adultery with thy wife.
40. Son, take not a widow to wife, for whenever there is
any word between you, she will say: Alas, for my first husband!
and thou art distressed.
41. Son, if retribution overtake thee from God, flee not nor
murmur; lest God be angry and with another harsher stroke
destroy thee untimely.
42. Son, love not thy son better than thy servant, for thou
knowest not which of them will be useful to thee.
43. Son, the sheep that stray from the flock become the
portion of the wolves.
44, Son, pass a just judgement in thy mind, and honour the
aged; to the end that thou mayest receive honour from the great
judge, and that it may be well with thee.
30 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
45. Son, incline thine eyes and soften the utterance of thy
mouth, and look under thine eyes; that thou mayest not appear
senseless to men, for if a temple were built by hallooings, an ass
would build seven palaces! in a day and cottages (?).
46. Son, boast not in the day of thy youth, lest thy youth be
thy destruction.
47. Son, suffer not thy companion to tread on thy feet, lest
he should presume and tread on thy neck? as well.
48. Son, speak not in wrath with thine adversary before the
judge, lest thou be called senseless? and foolish. But whatever he
asks thee, answer him with sweetness; and thou wilt heap up
his judgement on his head.
49. Son, if thou petitionest God for good, first fulfil His will
with fasting and prayer, and then are fulfilled thy petitions unto
thy good.
50. Son, a good name is better than a face that excites longing.
For beauty is destroyed‘, but a good name endureth for ever.
51. Son, it is better to be blind of eye than blind of mind;
for he that is blind of eye is quick to learn the coming and going
of the road. But the blind in mind forsakes the straight road,
and walks according to his will.
52. Son, a side-bone in thine own hand is better than a fat
lamb in the hand of others. A bird in thy hand is better than a
thousand fluttering in the air. A kid for sacrifice® in thine own
house is better than a steer in the house of others.
53. Son, 1 1s better to garner with poverty* than to squander
with riches.
1 So Ven. which has aparans. The other mss with Canon have darbas, a word
not given in lexicons, but which must have the same sense. The meaning of the
word ‘tchardakhs’ is unknown andI query my rendering. Canon omits it, perhaps
rightly. Canon has this precept 45 after no. 2 of our series and adds to it in that
context this: Son, if the oxen by sheer strength drew along, the yoke would not
diminish from the neck of the camel.
2 Bod. add ‘and head.’
3 Bod.; ‘lest thou appear senseless and unprofitable.’ * Bod. ‘ passes.’
5 So Bod. and Canon: Ven. has ‘a fat kid in’ etc., where parart ‘fat ’is a
corruption of patarag, which is the potior lectio and better attested.
6 Canon: ‘ Better is poverty with repose than’...
FROM THE ARMENIAN ol
54. Son, curse not thy son, until thou see his end; and
reject him not in scorn, until thou behold his latter end and
requital and earnings.
55. Son, examine the word in thy heart and then utter it.
For if thou alter the word, thou art a fawner.
56. Son, if thou hearest an evil word about anyone, hide it in
thy heart seven fathoms deep; so that the evil die and the good
be fulfilled.
57. Son, do thou not scoff frivolously; for the frivolous scoff
is a quarrel, and the quarrel! is slaying and death.
58. Son, the false word and the false conversation is heavy as
lead; but after a few days it floats upon the waters, like the leaf
of a tree.
59. Son, reveal thy lesser counsel to thy friend, and after
days irritate him and flout him. And}, if he does not reveal that
counsel, then reveal to him thy greater counsels, and thon keepest
him a trusty friend.
60. Son, in the presence of kings and judges, be helpful to
thy comrade; for, as it were from the mouth of a lion, dost thou
rescue him; and he becometh to thee a good name and a glory.
61. Son, if thine enemy come to thee to thy foot, grant him
pardon and laugh with joy to his face and recetve him with
honour.
62. Son, where thou art not invited, go not for a festival ;
and where they ask thee not, give no answer.
63. Son, over a river frozen and swollen pass thou not, lest
thou die a sudden death.
64. Son, ask of a wise man words of advice’, and thou shalt
be made wise. But if thou ask a foolish man, in spite of many
words, he is not wise.
65. Son, if thou sendest a wise man to give any command,
he himself fulfils the matter. But if thou sendest a fool, give
1 Bod. ‘and see, if’ and below ‘and keep him’ etc,
2 ‘words of wisdom’ Bod,
32 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
the command in the presence of many men. And do thou either
go thyself or not send him.
66. Son, test thy son in hunger and thirst; and if he is able
to bear it, then give thy riehes into his hands.
67. Son, from the house of invitation and from the wedding
go first before thy fellow, and return not again’ ; that thou mayest
get a good name? and mayest get no wounds on the head.
68. Son, a man who has many possessions and chattels, they
call him wise and virtuous; but one who has few chattels, they
call a fool and of no account, and no man honoureth him.
69. Son, I have eaten endive and I have drunk gall, and
it was not more bitter than poverty. I have lifted salt, and I
have lifted lead, and it was not heavier than is debt. For though
I ate and drank, I could not rest’. J have lifted iron and I have
lifted stones upon my shoulders, and it was better for me than to
dwell with the ignorant and the fool.
70. Son, if thou be poor among thy fellows, reveal it not;
lest thou be despised by them, and they hearken not unto thy
words.
71. Son‘, love thy flesh and thy wife. For she is thyself and
the companion of thy life, and even by extreme labour she
nurtures thy son’.
72. Son, if thy lord send thee to bring a dunged grape,
bring it not to him; for he will eat the grape, yet not let thee
off punishment for the dung.
78. Son, the word of a wise man in drink is better than the
word of a fool thatis thirsty or sober. Better is an upright slave
than one free but false. Better is a friend near at hand than
a brother far away.
74, Son, reveal not thy secret counsel to thy wife. For she is
’ Perhaps the sense is ‘and stay not till the last.’
2 Canon: ‘that thou mayest be anointed with fragrant oil’ ete. Compare the
Syriac.
3 Canon adds: ‘until I repaid the debt.’
4 This precept, No 41 in the series of 58, is not in Ven.
5 58 here repeats precept 15.
FROM THE ARMENIAN 33
weak and small of soul, and she reveals it to the powerful, and
thou art despised.
75. Son, if thou drinkest wine, keep thy tongue from
babbling, and it is well for thee and thou art called wise.
76. Son, without a schedule and witness, give not up thy
property, lest the other deny it and thou regret it.
77. Son, forsake not thy friend, lest thou find not another
sharer of thy counsel and friend?.
78. Son, love thy father who begat thee, and incur not the
curse of thy father and mother, so that thou mayest rejoice in the
prosperity of thy sons.
79. Son, it is better if they steal thy goods, than that they
detect theft in thee.
80. Son, if God prosper a man in his undertakings, do thou
honour him. And whenever thou beholdest an aged man, do
thou rise and stand up before him and magnify him.
81. Son, oppose not thyself to a wealthy man and to a river
in flood. For the eyes of a grasping man are not filled? except
with dust’.
82. Son, do thou not bring about a betrothal match, for they
see the good to be from God and from luck; but the bad is
traced to thee, and they call thee an intriguing person ‘
83. Son, if the rivers pause in their courses or the sun im its
career, or if the gall become sweet as honey, or the raven turn
white as the dove, even so will the senseless man abandon his
want of sense and the fool become sensible.
84. Son, go not too often® to the house of thy friend, lest
he hate thee.
85. Son, a dog that leaves his master and follows after thee,
pursue him with stones®
86. Son, good deeds and a pure offering are pleasing to
God; and do thou fear shame as thou fearest God.
' Nos. 77 and 79 are only given in 58.
* 69 adds: ‘ with treasure.’ 5 58 om. 81.
4 The Armenian is obscure here.
5 Canon adds ‘ on foot.’ ® Bod. Ven. add: ‘which is not. Canon omits
L, A. )
34 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
87. Son, the taking of an evil counsel into thy heart is the
antagonism of the dev}; and resistance is the foundation of
deeds, and the rampart of faith.
88. Son, that which seems evil unto thee, do not to thy com-
panion ; and what is not thine own, give not unto others.
89. Son, love the truth and hate lawlessness and? falsehood.
Give ear unto the commandments of God, and fear not the evil
one. For the commandment of God is the rampart of man.
90. Son, flee from a man that is evil and speaketh falsely ;
for avarice is the mother of all evils, and all evils are engendered
of impudence.
91. Son, love not judgement®; for even if thou get the better
of thine adversary, yet be in fear of the judgement of God.
92. Son, he that is npright in mind is the sun giving light,
and he that is treacherous in heart is gloomy with darkness; and
he that is generous in heart is full of pity. He that is grasping,
even though he has aught, is nevertheless dull of wit.
93. Son+, into the house of a drunkard enter not; and if thou
enter, tarry not; for in thy habits thou remainest empty and idle.
94. Son, malign not thy fellow whether near or at a distance ;
for evil words will quickly reach the master and lead to quarrels’.
95. Son, God hath ordained wine for the sake of gladness,
but in the place of a brothel or in any other low and unsuitable
place, it is better to drmk muck than wine.
95 b. Son, a drunken man is like an arrow in the hollow (lt.
palate) of a bow, which strikes no one else, but bruises its own
head.
96. Son, a drunken man thinks in his mind thus: I am
brave, and everything that I say, I say wisely. He does not
know that if he meets with a man of courage, he will throw him
at the first touch of his hands flat on the ground and drag him.
1 Or to the dev, a Persian word which in old Armenian usually means a demon.
2 Ven. om. ‘lawlesgness and.’ 3 Canon adds ‘of injustice.’
* Nos. 93-100 are only given in Codex Paris 58 and Venet.
5 Codex 58 gives this precept in late and obscure Armenian, and its text is
clearly faulty.
FROM THE ARMENIAN 35
(97. Son, if thou behold thine enemy fallen, do thou sorrow
over him, that thou mayest make a friend of him; but if thou
mock at him, when he gets up again he will requite thee with
evil.)
98. Son, a drunken man thinks that the earth whirls round ;
in his going he knows not that his head is deranged; for as the
earth is the mother of all plants and fruit-bearing things, so wine
is the mother of all evils, it doth cause men to be sick with divers
sicknesses, and to slay others without mercy; it deranges the
man and changes his nature into that of a brute.
99. Son, avoid guaranteeing; but if you become a guarantor,
make up your mind that you must give away out of your purse;
and not your purse only, but the hair off your chin?
100. Son, be thou not false in speech; for if they find thee to
be once false, then when thou speakest the truth, they will reckon
thee false and will not believe thee’.
And I say to Nathan: Son, receive into thy mind my precepts
and forget them not.
101 The questions‘ of the king’s sons and the answer of Khikar.
Houday and Baliayn asked questions of Khikar, and Khikar
said to Nathan: There are four things that crease the light to
man’s eyes,—to look upon flowers, to tread with naked foot on the
green, to walk amidst the water and to see one’s friend.
102 Four things are there which make a man fat and keep him
healthy ;—to wear linen and to hear such things as seem to
him pleasant; in the house an amiable and healthy spirit and to
103 see one’s remote (friend) well off. And four things are there
which improve a man’s banquet, at all times to converse well, not
to answer everything that is said, to walk humbly, to talk little
104 modesty in small matters and big ones. And four things are
1 This precept has already come as No. 11, in almost identical language.
2 This precept is in bad late Armenian and I give the sense of the last clause
conjecturally.
3 This precept also is in late Armenian.
4 The passage which follows until the resumption of the narrative is written in
vulgar Armenian. Ven. gives the names thus: Shoutay and Bayilan.
36 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
there which bring tears (lit. water) to one’s face—domination of
love, to talk too much and to boast that one knows what one does
not know, (to conceal everything, to weave a snare and fall into 16),
and? false-speaking.
105 They asked the sage and said: What is the most pleasing
thing on earth? Herephed: Modesty. He that hath a modest
face is pleasing. For all evils are born of impudence and folly.
And* these were the precepts which I taught to Nathan my
sister's son. All this I taught to Nathan my sister’s son, I Khikar,
c. iii. 1 chief Notary of Seneqarim the king. And so I supposed in my
mind that the teaching and precepts which I taught to Nathan
would abide and remain and that he would preserve it in his
mind. And I knew not that he despised my words, and scattered
them like the chaff before the wind, supposing in his mind. that
Khikar his father was grown very old and had arrived at the door
of his tomb. His mind (he said) is distraught and his thoughts
are deficient and he knows nothing.
2 Nathan began to dissipate my property to its loss, and spared
not my servants and handmaids. But he tormented them and
killed them, and cut about my horses and mules, and my steeds,
and destroyed the very pick of the flock.
3 And when I saw Nathan my sister’s son, that he was trans-
forming my affairs, and dissipating my property, I began to speak
4 What follows is in ms Canon given in a form which often more
nearly resembles the Syriac than do the better Armenian copies, as
below :
All this I taught to Nathan my sister’s son, thus thinking that
what I taught he kept in his heart and would live in the royal gate.
And I knew not that he scorned my words, and scattered them like
dust before the wind. Forthwith he began to waste my chattels and
my possessions. He spared not my slaves and maidservants nor even
my darlings and my friends, but bound and ill-treated them ; wounded
with violent blows and destroyed my steeds continually.
When I saw that Nathan counterfeited (or metamorphosed) my
affairs, then I spared my chattels lest he should ruin them. And I
1 Ven. omits the words in brackets.
FROM THE ARMENIAN 37
with him and I said: Keep away from my property, and come not
near it, for it is written in the Proverbs that, whereon hands have
not laboured, that thing his eye spareth not. And I went and 4
told Seneqarim my lord. And he called Nathan and said: As
long as Khikar is alive, thou shalt not touch his property. In 5
that season Nathan saw Boudan' his brother, who had been
brought up in my house, and said: Khikar my father is grown old
and his words have lost their savour. And when I heard this, I 6
cast him out from all my belongings. But Nathan formed a plan 7
of wickedness in his heart. He wrote in my name a letter to the
enemy of Senegarim, the King of Nineveh and Asorestan; and it
was as follows:
I Khikar, chief Notary of Seneqarim the king, have sent to thee, 8
O King of the Egyptians, to this effect: When this writing reaches 9
thee, thou shalt muster thy forces, and come to the plain of the
Eagles on the 25th day of the month Hrotitz, and I will put in
your power the land of the Asores, and will give the throne of
Senegarim into thy hand without trouble, for thee to hold it.
said to Nathan: Come not near my chattels, for it is said in the wise
ones, that hands which have not been hard worked, the eye shall not
spare. And I went and told my lord Seneqarim. And the king
ordered Nathan and said: As long as thy father Khikar is alive,
go not near his possessions, but remain in the royal gate, and let
thy father Khikar remain in his gate, and rest in his old age.
I Khikar when I saw all this that Nathan did, I said in my heart:
Alas! How hath Nathan despised my sweet advice, and all my wisdom
hath he set at naught and quite despised.
Then Nathan went into the house of the king and planned very
great evils for me. For he wrote two letters. One he sent to
Pharaon, king of Egypt, since he was an enemy of my lord Senegarim,
and it was written as follows :
I Khikar notary of Seneqarim king of Asorestan and Nineveh to
Pharaon king of Egypt write. Be it in thy cognisance, when this
dispatch reaches thee, at once shalt thou muster thy forces and come to
the plain of Eagles on the 25th day of the month Hrotitz, and I will
lead and make thee king over these without trouble.
1 In Bodleian ms Baudan.
10
1]
38 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
And he had made his handwriting to resemble my hand-
writing, and had sealed it with my seal. And when the forces of
the king asked to go home to their homes, Nathan alone remained
before the king, and said: O King, live for ever. I that have
eaten bread and salt in thy house, God forbid that I should see
evils before thee. Khikar my father, who was in honour and
greatness before thee, hath lied to me and to thee, and hath taken
the side of thy enemies. And the letter which Nathan had
written in my words, and had likened his handwriting to my
handwriting therein, he took, and read the dispatch which he
himself had sealed, before the king.
And when the king heard it, he was very much distressed, and
said: What wrong have I done to Khikar, that he has so behaved
And again a letter which had this form:
From Seneqgarim king, health (or peace) to Khikar notary of my
tribunal. When there shall come to thee this dispatch, thou shalt
prepare my forces which are under thy hand; exactly on the 25th
day of the month Hrotitz thou shalt come to meet me on the plain of
Eagles. And when thou comest near draw up face to face against my
forces, as if it were being prepared against thine enemies. For the
envoys of Pharaon are come unto me to see our forces and tremble.
And this letter Nathan sent to me as if by the command of the
king. And he himself Nathan stood before the king and said: King,
live for ever. I have eaten bread and salt in thy house. God forbid
that I should deceive my king.
For my father Khikar, whom thou didst send unto rest, unto
honour, unto glory, hath not done according to the command of your
kingship, but hath played false to God and your kingship. And he
had given the letter to certain trusty men of the king, and they gave
it to the sovereign; and the sovereign gave it to Nathan and said:
Read. And Nathan read it before the king, and the king was sorely
troubled, and asked those who gave him the letter: Who gave into
your hands this letter? And as Nathan had charged them, they
answered with one mind, saying: Travellers that were going into
Egypt. They had the letter, and we thy servants found them and
took them by force. And when we asked them: Whence are ye!
they answered, We are native slaves of Khikar.
And the king was troubled and said to the trusty men: What harm
FROM THE ARMENIAN 39
to me? And at once Nathan wrote by the command of the king
a letter thus conceived :
When thou readest this writing, thou shalt muster thy hosts 12
and shalt eome to the plain of the Eagles on the 25th day of the
month Hrotitz. And whenever thou shalt see me, thou shalt
draw up in battle array against me. For the messengers of
Pharaon are come to me to see my hosts.
He brought the letter to me, and he himself went 'to the king. 13
He stood before the king and said: Grieve not, O ruler; but eome, 14
let us go to the plain of the Eagles, and let us see whether this be
so. Then what thou commandest is done.
And Senegarim took his army and came to the plain of the 19
Eagles, and found me with my army; and I drew up my forees
over against him as he had commanded. When the king saw this,
he was very grieved. Nathan began to speak and said: Grieve 16
not, O king, but let us go home. And I will bring my father
Khikar before thee. The king said to Nathan: If thou bringest
Khikar before me, I will give thee very great presents and I will
set thee in trust over all my affairs. And all the affairs of my
kingdom shall be transacted by thee with ability.
And the king returned to his palace, and Nathan my sister's 17
then have I done to Khikar, that he hath devised such a snare for
me? Wherefore hath he returned evil for good? Nathan replied and
said: Be not troubled, O mighty king. But let us go to the plain of
the Eagles, as is written in the dispatch ; and let us see if it is so, then
let thy behests be done.
And Nathan took the king and went to the plain of the Eagles.
But I, Khikar, when I learned of the setting out of the king, prepared
my forces and set them over against him, as had been written in the
dispatch by hehest of the king.
When the king saw my forces, he was sore troubled. The king
said: If thou bringest Khikar before me, mighty presents will I give
thee, and all the royal affairs shall be discharged by thee; for thou
hast been found a trusty servant before me. And the king went back
into his palace.
And Nathan came to me and said; My father Khikar, very
40 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
son came to me and said: Seneqarim the king hath sent me to
c.iv. 1 thee and says: Come to me and let us be joyful together. And
when I went, the king said to me:
Khikar, Notary and wise man, thou wast my counsellor and
ruler, and giver of commands of the house of the Asores and
Ninevites; and thou hast gone over to the side of my enemies.
2 And that letter, which Nathan had written in my! words and had
likened therein his handwriting to my handwriting, the king gave
unto me and said: Take and read.
And when I read it, all my limbs? were dissolved, and my
tongue was shrivelled up as parchment; and I was stupefied and
became like one of those distraught. I sought for a word of
3 wisdom and found no answer to give. Nathan began to speak,
and said to me: Get out of the presence of thy king, grey-haired
one, perverted and inane*. Give thy hand for the iron and thy
4 foot for the fetter. And the king turned away his face from me
and said to Abusmag, his nayzp: Lead away and slay yon godless
Khikar, and remove his head afar, about 100 ells.
5 And I fell on my face and kissed the earth and said: O King,
live for ever. Thou hast willed me to slaying, and hast not
hearkened unto my words, And I from my heart know that I
have not in any way wronged thee, and in iny heart there is no
guile. I am innocent. Therefore have pity on me, and order
that in my own house: they slay me and give over my body for
burial.
6 And the king ordered Abusmagq, that they should slay me in
my own house. And when I went forth from the king, I wrote a
letter lamenting to Abestan my wife and said: When this letter
honourable and pleasing hath seemed to the king this preparing of thy
cavalry in array. Therefore hath he sent me to thee and saith: All
thou hast done, thou hast done well and wisely. So then give orders
to thy forces to go to their place, and do thou come and let us make
merry together.
1 Ven. omits ‘my.’ ° Bod. =all the flesh of my limbs.
’ The Arm, word is obscure.
FROM THE ARMENIAN 41
reaches thee, do thou send out to meet me a thousand virgins ;
and let them put on apparel of mourning and let them mourn for
me and bewail me, that I may see with my own eyes even the
wailers who bewail me in my life-time. But* thou shalt make 7
large loaves, to give to my executioners, and dainty viands for
them to eat and drink.
And Abestan my wife was very wise and? fulfilled my orders. 8
She went out to meet them?, and led them into the house, and set
before them a table; and fed them, and gave them to drink old
wine and unmixt, till they were fuddled and were drunk and fell
asleep. Then I and my wife fell at the feet of Abusmaq weeping, 9
and I said to him: Abusmaq, my comrade, look up to heaven and
behold God with thine eyes; and remember the bread and salt
which we have eaten together, and remember how that they
betrayed thee to Seneqarim the king’s father; and I took and
kept thee until the king asked for thee, and how, when I led thee
before him, he gave me mighty gifts. Now therefore keep me 10
and render to me a return of the service I rendered thee, and to
a4 The narrative that follows is given in ms Canon in a form more
closely resembling the Syriac as below.
And they shall make and prepare a table, adorned with all good
things, for Abousmaq and the Parthians who are with me. Thou
shalt go out to meet these and shalt lead them into the house.
And Arphestan my wife did immediately what I had commanded ;
and we set out to my house. And Abousmaq and the Parthians
reclined, and my wife set before them a table, and waited on them.
And I entered with them to eat bread; and they were fuddled with
wine.
And I said to Abousmaq my comrade, Look up to heaven and
discern God with thine eyes and remember the love of our brotherhood.
And sin not against my blood, for thou knowest that I am innocent.
But remember also this, that the sire of Seneqarim gave thee into my
hands for slaying ; and I wronged thee not, for I knew that thou wast
innocent. And I kept thee until the king made a request; and then
I led thee before the king, and the king gave me mighty gifts. This
1 92 and 58 alone add the words ‘ was...and.’
2 Cod. “ me.”
42 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
thee there will be mighty gifts as thy requital, good for good’. I
have a man in prison, and very like unto me is he. He shed
blood in my house and is under sentence of death, and his name
is Seniqar. Take therefore my garments into the prison and
dress him up in them and slay him; and so thou fulfillest the
king’s command.
11 And when I said this, Abusmaq had pity on me, and did my
will and what I told him. And the soldiers, fuddled, woke up
from sleep? at midnight, and slew Seniqar my slave, and removed
12 his head from him one hundred ells. And the news went forth
into the city of Asorestan, that Khikar, Notary and wise man,
was dead.
Then Abusmagq my comrade and Abestan my wife made me
a house dug ont under ground, its* length seven ells, and its
height equal to my head’s, hard by the door-posts of my house.
13 And they shut me im and placed beside me bread and water, and
then Abusmagq went off to the king and told him that ‘ Khikar
the wise is slain.’ And all who heard of my death beat their
breasts and were full of regret and said: ‘ Alas for thee, O Notary!
Who is there to decide the matters of thy kingdom with thy
ability ?’
14 Then the king called Nathan and said to him: ‘Go, make
15 lamentations for the house and mourning for thy father.’ Nathan?
came, and instead of lamenting he gathered together actors, and
do thou likewise and slay me not. There is my slave whose name is
Séniphar, and very like is he unto me. And he is in prison, because
he is under sentence of death. So then lead me into prison and dress
him up in my garments and cast him to the Parthians, for them to
slay him....
4 mus Canon has the narrative which follows in a form nearer to
the Syriac. It is given below:
And Nathan went off to the house of Khikar, but with him there
" Bod. has ‘will be a requital from God’: Paris 92 ‘will be mighty gifts.’ I
render the Ven. ms.
2 So Ven. and 92: the rest=‘ fuddled with wine, woke up at.’
3 Canon = ‘its height three ells and its length seven ells, equal to (or level with)
the doorposts of my house,’
FROM THE ARMENIAN 43
made great cheer; and he very cruelly tormented my servants
and handmaids. And even for Abestan my wife he had no respect, 16
but desired to fornicate with her, that had brought him up. And
I from my subterranean chamber heard the weeping and groanings
and the complaints of my servants. And I moreover wept and 17
my soul longed for a little bread and a morsel of meat and a cup.
And I was destitute of all my chattels. And all the inhabitants
of Asorestan and of Nineveh fled from me.
When the king of Egypt heard this, of how Khikar the Notary c. v. 1
was dead, and of the Ninevites and all the land (that) they were
fled, he was very glad. And the king of Egypt, Pharaon, wrote a
letter as follows :
To Seneqgarim, king of the Asores. Health be to thy Lordship 2
and Kingship. Be it known to thee that I desire to build a
palace hung betwixt heaven and earth. Look and send unto me
a true and clever and wise man who can build, and also give
answer to any question I ask. If however thou shalt neglect this 3
was no concern for mourning. And he collected all his dear ones to
drink wine and made great good cheer, instead of mourning as the
king commanded. Using force to the dear ones of Khikar he tortured
them and had no respect for Arphestan wife of Khikar, nay rather
desired to fornicate with her.
And I Khikar was hearing the voice of my stewards whom Nathan
tortured and illtreated. And 1 was tortured in the darkness. My
soul was longing for bread and a morsel of meat.
And when Pharaon heard that Khikar was slain, he was very glad,
and wrote a dispatch to the king Senegarim, riddles.
And the king called Nathan and said: Write an answer to this
letter.
And Nathan said: Difficult is this matter. Who is able to give
answer thereto ?
And the king was distressed and said: Alas for Khikar my
secretary and wise man!
And when Pharaon learned, that they could not give an answer to
his writing, he sent puissant forces and they took tribute from Sene-
garim. And as long as Khikar languished in the prison, the burden
of Pharaon was multiplied on Asorestan and Nineveh. Those who
4A, THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
request, then I come and take away thy kingdom and will lay waste
4 thy land. When the king heard this he was very grieved, and sent
and mustered his satraps to ask their advice, saying: What shall we
5do? The? satraps say: O King, who else can answer this question
except Nathan who hath learned of Khikar and knoweth his lore
and hath been brought up in his house? He will be able to give
him an answer to this demand which the king of Egypt hath
written. Then the king called Nathan and shewed him the
counsel; and he gave him the dispatch, and Nathan read it.
6 When he had read aloud the letter, he cried out with a loud voice
and said: This? is a matter which even the gods® cannot settle
or give answer to. How shall I be able to give answer?
7 When the king heard, he rose from his golden throne and sat
in the ashes, and with his own hands he smote his face and
plucked out his beard and said: ‘ Alas for thee, Khikar, Notary
were under the hand of Seneqarim also were much impoverished
and all the land laid waste, and the chambers of the royal treasury
were emptied.
And the king said: Alas for Khikar, sccretary and wise man. One
who should give thee to me alive, many chattels would I give him,
even to the half of my kingdom.
And Abousmagq revealed it not to the king, that he might be in
stress and know the value to him of Khikar.
And Pharaon sent a dispatch to king Senegarim which had this
tenour: From Pharaon to Senegarim health. I desire to build a
palace....
This when Nathan heard, he cried with a loud voice and said:
King, live for ever. Such a matter as that the gods could not make
answer to. Surely then not men ?
When the king heard this he was very distressed. He rose from
his throne and sat on sackcloth, beat his person and said: Alas for
Khikar, able notary and wise. On the words of a lying man I slew
* Canon: And they perplext said: To such a matter Khikar would give an
answer, and now Nathan who is in his place.
2 Canon: Such w matter the gods cannot answer, much less men. When the
king heard, he was sorely troubled ; he rose...
% The Arm. word used is dign, i.e. the Devs.
FROM THE ARMENIAN 45
and wise in the conversations of men, I have through the tittle-
tattle of men destroyed thee. For thou didst arrange the affairs
of our kingdom. Now if anyone gave thee unto me, I would
give him whatever he asked of me, no matter how great a treasure
of silver and gold.’
When Abusmag my comrade heard this, he stood before the 8
king and said: ‘O King, live for ever. He that doeth not the
king’s commands is sentenced to death, for the commands of God
and of the king are one. Thou didst bid slay Khikar, and he 1s
still living” The king said: ‘Speak, Abusmag, my servant and 9
trusty one. If thou canst shew me Khikar alive, I will give thee?
byssus and purple and bestow on thee mighty presents.’ And 10
Abusmagq, when he heard this from the king, like a swiftly flying
fowl, came unto me, and opened the door of my subterranean
chamber, and led me forth. And the colour of my face was 11
changed and my head? was matted and my nails grown like an
eagle’s.
When the king beheld me’, he bent his head and was ashamed 12
to look in my face; and hardly looked in my face, his face being
full of shame; and* he said to me: O my loved and honourable
him. There is none like thee. And there is no successor like thee in
the royal gate. If anyone gave thee to me, I would weigh him against
gold and buy thee. When Ahousmaq learned the deep distress of the
king, he said: My lord king, he that contemns the hehests of his
lord and fulfils them not is guilty of death. Now then this word of
mine is fulfilled in me. For I fulfilled not the behest of iy lord.
Thou didst make behest to slay Khikar, and now he is still alive.
And the king said: Speak, speak, my servant, well-doing and
trusty. For thou hast not sinned. But of many good things hast
thou hecome worthy. If thou shewest me Khikar, I will give thee
royal purples and one hundred thousand talents of gold.
4 For the text of ms Canon see below :
And he sent me to the bath for them to wash and anoint me with
2 Bod. ‘ will array thee in.’ 2 Canon: ‘the hair of my head.’
3 Bod. adds: ‘in such plight.’
13
c. vi. 1
2
46 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
brother Khikar, go to thy house and repair thy person for 40 days,
and then come unto me. And I didso. And I came back again
to the king, and the king said: I have sinned against thee, father
Khikar. NotI is it that has sinned against thee, but Nathan thy
sister’s son, whom thou didst bring up.
And I fell on my face and kissed the earth before the king
and said: Forasmuch as I have seen the face of the king, I am
alive, and all evils are turned for me into wellbeing. Forasmuch
as thy servant Khikar has found grace.
The king said: Hast thou heard this, O honourable good
Khikar, to wit, what the Egyptian has sent and that which is
said, that the inhabitants of Nineveh and <Asorestan are fled ?
And I said to the king: Therefore let a herald proclaim at the
gate of thy palace, that Khikar is alive; and all who shall hear
it will return, each man to his place. And the king com-
manded a herald to cry, saying: Khikar is alive; and that all
the dwellers in Nineveh and Asorestan are returned, each man
to his place.
And I said to the king Seneqarim: Concerning this matter
which the Egyptian has sent, do thou not be anxious. I will go
and give him answer and will bring to thee the tribute from
3 Egypt. When the king heard this he was glad, and established
Abusmagq at the head of the divan. And on the morrow I wrote
to Abestan my wife and said as follows :—
fragrant oil (omitting the direct speech of the king on this point).
And they did so, and brought raiment of great price and clad me in it.
And the king brought and set me close to him. And all that he had
promised to Abousmaq he fulfilled amply.
Then the king brought the letter of Pharaon and gave it to me,
and said: Read and give an answer to this letter.
And I took and read it, and said to the king: Send yon envoys
to go to their place. And I will later set out and fulfil the behests of
Pharaon.
And when they were gone, I Khikar secretary sent and had
brought two eaglets....
FROM THE ARMENIAN 4,7
‘When thou readest this writing, do thou have caught two 4
nestlings of an eagle, and two children not yet able to talk, and
two nursing women to nurse the little ones. And they shall
say: Clay, lime, mortar, brick. The artisans stand idle. And
have two ropes spun, the length thereof two hundred ells, and
the thickness thereof one ell. And cause a carpenter to fit 5
together two cages for the children; and give food to the eagles,
every day two lambs. And cause the children to be bound upon
the eagles, and to make little flights, until they form the habit.
And in this way habituate them until they soar aloft two hundred
ells.’
And Abestan my wife was very wise and did everything at 6
once which J told her. Then the king commanded me to depart
to Egypt. And when I reached the gate of Egypt, I brought 7
the children’s cages, even as they were habituated. And I
bound them upon the eagles; they flew up and soared aloft, and
the children cried out and said: Clay, lime, mortar, brick. The
artisans stand idle. And JI Khikar took a rod, and I went after 8
all whom I met and struck them blows (and said): Hurry up,
give what the artisans ask for. The king of Egypt came up and
was very astonished, and was glad and bade us make (the birds)
come down. And he said: Come, rest them from their labours.
Eat, drink and be merry. And on the morrow come to me.
And when it was dawn the king called me and said: What 1s 9
thy name? AndI said: Abikam is my name. For] am a serf
of Seneqarim the king.
And when the king heard, he was grieved exceedingly, and
said: ‘Have I seemed so contemptible in the eyes of Seneqarim
the king of Asorestan, that he has sent a serf unto me to give me
answer?’ And he said tome: ‘Go unto thy house and to-morrow
come to me.
And when on the morrow I went, the king gave command to 10
his forces to dress themselves in scarlet Chlamid; and the king
himself was arrayed in purple raiment, and sat on his throne;
and his forces around him, He commanded and called me to
11
12
13
14
16
17
18
19
48 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
him and said: Abikam, unto whom am [I like? Or my forces,
whom are they like? I said, ‘Thou art like to the dig’ and thy
satraps to his priests.’ He said to me: Go to thy lodgings, and
to-morrow come unto me. When I had gone to my house and
came the next day to him, he had arrayed his forces in linen,
and he himself was arrayed in scarlet, and he said to me: Unto
whom am I like, or my forces, to whom are they like? And
I said: ‘Thou art hke the sun and thy satraps are like its
rays. And again he said to me: Go to thy lodgings, and on
the morrow come to me. And when I went on the morrow, he
commanded the satraps to array themselves in dyed raiment,
and he himself arrayed himself in raiment of plumes, and sat
on his throne and said to me: To whom am I like? I said:
‘Thou art like to the green grass? and thy satraps to the blossoms
thereof.’
Then the king was glad and said: Tell me the truth. Sene-
garim the king, to whom is he like? I said: God forbid that
thou shouldst mention Senegarim the king, since thou art sitting
down. But stand up, and I will tell thee. When he had risen
up, I said: Seneqarim the king is like unto Bélshim, and his
satraps to the lightnings. When he willeth, he maketh the rain*;
and he shooteth out the dew on high, he sendeth it forth in his
empery. He thunders, and imprisons the rays of the sun. And
when he willeth, he doth bring hail and grindeth to dust tree,
green herb and dry; and the dawn breaketh and smiteth the
shoots of green grass.
The king said: Tell me, what is thy name? I said: Khikar is
my name. He said: Wretch, hast thon come to life? And I
said: Since I have seen thy face, O king, I am alive. The king
said: May this day be blessed, for I have seen Khikar with my
own eyes alive.
live. ‘to God.’ The plural dig literally—‘demons,’ but is used like the
Hebrew Elohim as a singular. The same use is found in the Arm, version of
Eusebius’ Chronicon Bk 1. In the Arm. O. T. it is used as a plural.
2 Yenice ms=‘ to the plain,’ * Bod. =‘ the material of rain,’
FROM THE ARMENIAN 49
And [I fell on my face and did homage to him and kissed him. 20
The king said: Expound this saying.
There stands a pillar, and upon that pillar twelve cedars, and 21
upon them thirty wheels, and upon each wheel two couriers’, the
one black and the other white. And I said: O king, this the
cowherds of the Asores know. The pillar of which thou spakest
is the year and the cedars are the twelve months. The thirty
wheels are the days of the months. The two couriers, the one
black and the other white, are dawn and nightfall*.
The king said, What is this story, that from Egypt as far as 22
Nineveh there are 500 leagues—how did our mares hear the
neighing of your stallions and miscarry? I Khikar went out
from him, and I took a cat and scolded and tortured it. Then
they told the king, saying: Khikar flouts the dzq and tortures the
cats. The king called meand said: Khikar, wherefore dost thou
flout our dig and torture the cats? And I said: Yon cat has 23
done harm enough to me. Aforetime the king gave to me
a cock; sweet of voice was it, and at each hour 1t awoke me, to
go to the king’s palace. This very night (the cat) went off and
bit off the head of the cock and came back here. And the king 24
said to me as follows: It appears that as thou growest old, in the
same measure your words and wisdom are changed round. From
Egypt to Nineveh there are 500° leagues. How then im a single
night could a cat bite off the head of the cock and come back
hither? But I said: How could your mares hear the neighing
and miscarry.
The king said: Leave this. Come and weave me a rope of 25
sand. When I had gone out from him, the king said to all those
with him: Whatever Khikar says, ye shall say: ‘We know and
have heard this thing.
And I took and wrote a letter thus: From Senegarim king, c. vii. 1
1 The Arm. word has this meaning.
2 After the explanation of the pillar us Canon passes direct to the rope of sand
incident, as does the Syriac.
3 ws Canon has 360.
L, A. G
50 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
2all hail to Pharaon king of Egypt. Brethren have need of
brethren to behold them, and kings of kings. In this season
expenses and debts enough have there been and silver is wanting
in our treasuries. So then give orders and have brought to me
3 by dispatch a hundred talents of silver. And I fastened up the
letter and went in to the king and said: In this dispatch I have
written of a matter, of which neither your city nor your satraps
have heard. And they all said: We have heard and we know
this matter of yours. But I said: If ye have heard, say then
before ye have opened the letter. And they could not say, but
opened and read it. I said: Ye have heard what is written. The
4 king said?: If thou weave not for me a rope of sand, thou shalt
not carry away the tribute from Egypt. And I went into a
deeply dug chamber, and perforated the wall of the chamber on
the side whence the dawn shone; and when the dawn gleamed
forth, it flashed into the chamber seven ells; and J took up dust
of sand and cast it into the hole bored and blew into it. It
appeared like woven twists, and I said: Give orders, O king,
that they collect yon ropes and I will weave yet others.
9 When the king saw this he laughed and said: Blessed art
thou before the dig. And he gave me very great presents, and
allowed the tribute from Egypt, and well and gladly dismissed me,
and I departed.
6 When the king Senegarim heard of my coming, he went out
to meet me with joy. When we had saluted each other, he took
and led me into his palace and made me recline at the head of
the couch; and made merry for several days, and bestowed on me
very great presents, and said to me: O my father Khikar, ask of
7 me other very great presents and I will give them to thee. And
I bowed to the earth to him and said: O King, live for ever.
1 92 adds ‘ nor your king.’
* Canon=and Pharaon said: Weave me a rope of sand, in length nine ells,
And I said: My lord king, order them to bring forth from your treasury a model
that I may see and according to the model make it, that it be not too thick or too
thin. And Pharaon said: In my treasury is none. But unless thou weave it, thou
carriest not off the silver, which by thy wisdom thou hast sought and I promised,
FROM THE ARMENIAN 51
Whatsoever thou wouldst bestow on me, bestow on Abusmaq my
comrade, who gave life to thy servant. But to me thou shalt
give Nathan my sister's son whom I taught. For he hath not
well learned my former lore.
And the king gave Nathan my sister's son into my hands, 8
and I* bound him with a single chain of iron, which was of the
weight of seven talents, at the door of my portico; and I
entrusted him to Bélhar my servant. And I ordered him to
scourge him on his back and belly. And I said to him in my 9
coming in and going forth: Whatsoever I speak in proverbs with
him, do thou write on paper and keep it with thee; and I gave to
him a little bread and a little water. I began to speak and said
as follows.
1. Son, him that with his ears heareth not, they make to hear ec. viii.
through his back. Nathan began to speak and said: Wherefore
art thou angry with me, my father? I have? sinned against thee,
my father Khikar. If thou wilt have mercy on me, thy servant,
I will even become to thee dust and ashes and a servant all the
days of my life.
And I said to him:
2. Son, on the throne of glory I seated thee, and from my
throne thou didst hurl me to ruin.
3. Son, I in byssus and purples clad thee, and thou with
earth wouldst have destroyed my body.
4, Son, I raised thee on high like a tower, so that if the
® For the text of ms Canon see below:
Then I took Nathan, and led him to my house ; and bound (him to)
my pillar of iron, of which the weight was seven hundred utres; and
I placed a rope round his neck. And I smote a thousand blows (/t.
trees) on his chest and a thousand on his back. And he was kept in
the door of my portico. And I gave him bread by weight and water
by measure; and entrusted him to Béliar my servant, and I said to
him: In my goings out and my comings in, whatever I say to Nathan
write it in thy book.
1 Canon =< sister’s son, that I may teach him another teaching.’
2 Canon with Syriac omit the words ‘I have—of my life.’
52 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
enemy should come to me, I might go forth and fortify myself in
thee; and thou thyself hast been found to be the enemy in my
house.
5. Son, I gave thee to glory and honour; and thou didst
betray me into the hands of enmity and death.
6. Son, I nurtured! thee like the cub of the fox; and thine
eye was on thine hole and my finger smooth was on thy mouth
and thy fingers were sharpened upon my eyes.
7. Son, my righteousness and innocency saved and rescued
me; and thy injustice prospered thee not.
8. Son, thou wast to me as a scorpion which struck the
needle. The needle said?: Behold a sting which is worse than
thine own. Again he struck the sole of the foot of the camel,
and he set his foot hard upon that scorpion and crushed it and
said: Captive, knewest thou not that thy breath and soul was
under my feet ?
9. Son, thou hast been to me like a goat which was eating
madder. Says the madder: Why eatest thou me? Knowest thou
not: that with my root they dye thy skin*? Said the goat: [in
my lifetime eat thee, after my death they pluck up thy root and
prepare (lé. build) my skin.
10. Son, thou hast been to me like him that shot his arrow
up to the heavens; and he was not able to reach thereunto, but
reaped the reward of his lawlessness, and the arrow returned upon
his head.
11. Son, thou hast been to me like the sower, who sowed ten
bushels, and gathered five bushels, and the rest failed.
12. Son, thou hast been to me like the axe that was
chopping a tree. Said the tree: Wert‘ thou not from me, thou
1 J render snoutzi of ms Canon instead of ousoutzi=‘ taught’ of the other mss.
us Canon has the rest of the saying thus: ‘like the young of the eagle, and thy
fingers were sharpened against my eyes. For thine eye was evil to look upon me.’
2 J supply the words ‘the needle said’ from ms Canon. The other copies omit
it through homoioteleuton.
3 So ms Canon: the other uss less well: ‘with me they work thy skin.’
* ms Canon, better: ‘Were not what is in thy hand from me, thou wert not
FROM THE ARMENIAN 53
couldst not overcome me. Thus? didst thou imagine saying: I
will fill his place. But if the pig’s tail were about five ells long,
it would not fill the place of the horse. And if its fleece were as
purple, it could not be likened to the body of a king’.
The maggot of the bread ate the body of a king, but was
itself of no use to anyone nor profitable, but vile.
13. Son, thou hast been to me like the young of the swallow
which fell out of its nest, and a weasel found it and said: If it
had not been for me’, then a great evil would have befallen thee.
The nestling said to the weasel: Thy good which thou hast done
to me shall return upon thine head.
14. Son, a dog which itself eats the quarry, will become the
prey of wolves. An eye that gives me no light, the ravens dig it
out. Hand which helps me not, from the shoulder let them lop
it off.
15. Son, thou hast been to me like the lure which lay buried
in the dung. A sparrow found it and said: What doest‘ thou ?
And it said: I am engaged in prayer unto God. Said the
sparrow: And that which is in thy mouth, what is it? It said:
A little loaf for the hungry. The sparrow darted in to take the
bread and was caught by the neck and said: If this was a little
loaf for the hungry, God even so heareth thy prayer.
16. Son, they said to the wolf: Keep away from the fold.
It answered: If I live away, I am blinded; for the dust is a
remedy for my eyes and benefits them.
17. Son, thou hast been to me as the wolf that encountered
an ass, and said: Peace be unto thee. The young ass said:
able to overcome me.’ In Arm. katzi=child: katzin=the child or anaxe. The
us here reads the latter, and the scribe of ms Canon took the word in the sense of
child. The scribe of the other uss took it in the sense of aze.
1 ws Canon, better: ‘My son, thou didst imagine thus, saying: I fill the place
of Khikar, but were the pig’s tail nine ells long’ etc.
2 ws Canon like the Syriac adds here this saying: ‘Son, I thus thought, that
thou wouldst stay in my house and inherit my goods. But according to thy
lawlessness, God hath not prospered thee.’
3 Lit. ‘if it had been apart from me.’
4 So 69: the rest=‘ What art thou?’
54 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
Peace to yonder master of mine, who hath loosed the cord of my
feet and let me behold thy face evil and bloodthirsty’.
18. Son, thou hast been to me like one who saw his fellow
a-shivering. Taking water he threw it over him.
19. Son, thon hast been to me like the dog which went into
the oven of the potter. When he was warm, he began to bark
at the potter.
20. Son, they said to the cat, Give up thy habitual affair‘,
and the privilege? is extended to thee to enter the palace and
quitit. The cat said: If my eyes were gold and my paw of silver,
I would yet not give up the habitual thing’.
21. Son, thou hast been to me as a snake that wound itself
round a bramble and fell into a river. A wolf saw it and said:
Lo, the evil is mounted on the evil, and evil is that which drives
them along.
22. Son, thou hast been to me as a mole which came out of
its hole and one with another went forth because of their eyes not
seeing. And an eagle swooped and seized him; and the mole
said: If there had been no senses in my case, I should have
remained in my place and lived a peaceful life.
23. Son, they gave teaching the wolf’s cub, and-said: Say
thou, ayb, ben, gim*; and he said ayts, bouts, garhn (i.e. goat, kid,
lamb).
24. Son, they took the swine to the bath, and he plunged
into it, then rolled himself in the bog, saying: You wash in your
own, and I will in mine.
Nathan began to speak and said: My father Khikar, men sin
unto God, and He forgives them, when they say: I have sinned.
Father, I have sinned unto thee. Forgive me, and I will be to
thee a slave henceforth for ever’.
1 Canon omits ‘ evil and bloodthirsty. ’
2 Lit. ‘ word.’
3 Canon here has ‘ habit,’ bars for ban=‘ word,’ and this should probably be
read all through.
4 i.e, the first three letters of the Armenian alphabet.
6 Canon adds: ‘like one of the sinners.’
FROM THE ARMENIAN 55
And I spake to Nathan thus:
25. Son, thou hast been to me like a palm-tree which was
growing with roots on the bank of the river. When the fruit
ripened, it fell into the river. The lord of the tree came to cut it
down, and the tree said: Leave me in this place’, that in the next
year I may bear fruit. The lord of the tree said: Up to this day
hast thou been to me useless, in the future thou wilt not become
useful.
26. Son, God hath rescued me because of my innocence, but
hath destroyed thee because of thy lawlessness. God passes
judgement between me and thee. For the tail of the dog gives
bread and his mouth a cudgel?.
In the same hour Nathan swelled up and all his body burst
asunder, and I said:
27. Son*, he that doeth good, winneth good; and he that
digs a pit for others, himself falls into the pit. The good endeth
in good and the evil in evil.
Here endeth Khikar‘.
* For the text of us Canon see below:
Said Khikar: He that doeth well to the good will meet with good.
And he who diggeth a pit for his fellow, with his own person filleth it.
He who loves evil is hateful to many, and he who pursues the good
inherits it.
1 Canon =‘ Leave me for this year.’
2 Canon adds this precept about the dog after No. 16. It comes as the fourth
in the first series of the Syriac.
3 Canon : ‘and he who digs a pit for his comrade fills it with his own person.’
So the Syriac.
4 The last three words in Codex Ven. alone.
F.C. C.
ARMENIAN VERSION
B. REcENSION FROM BopLEyY ARM. MS. G. 9.
(Words in round brackets are supplied to complete the sense. A note
of interrogation after a word implies that the sense is doubtful.)
History and Conversation of Khikar the lover of wisdom,
which all men should bear in mind and understand, because of its
profit and advantage and of wisdom.
In the year of Senekarim the king of Assyria and Nineveh,
I Khikar the scribe of Senekarim the king, acquired for myself
male and female slaves, and many possessions. I built me sixty
palaces, and I was not deficient in wealth. But seed I had not to
inherit my wealth. And J remembered the day of my death, that
all would make mock of me, and say that Khikar the scribe and
sage is dead, and there was no son to bury him, nor daughter to
bewail him. And having reflected, I went in before my gods, and
I cast incense, and offered sacrifices, and many presents, and
I prayed thus, saying:
O my lords, my gods, give unto me male seed, that I may not
remain without an heir. But if ye shall give me seed, then
although every day ten talents he shall distribute, yet he cannot
exhaust my wealth.
Therenpon a voice came from the gods unto me and said:
O Khikar scribe, it is not fated for thee (to have) seed; but that
thou take Nathan thy sister’s son, and rear him. And he shall be
a son to thee and repay to thee thy bringing (of him) up.
And when I heard this from the gods, I took Nathan my sister's
son; one year old was he, and I nourished him, and I clad him in
byssus and purple; and (1 bound) a gold necklace on his neck,
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 57
and like a king’s son I decked him out with ornaments, and with
my own hands I gave him to drink milk and honey, and [ laid
him to sleep [on the down] of! my eagles and doves, until he was
seven years of age. And I began to teach him writing and wisdom,
the returns of contradictory speeches, and interpretation of parables.
By day and by night I ceased not to instruct Nathan.
And Senekarim the king saith unto me: O Khikar, my scribe,
my soul is distressed on account of thee; for there is no one who
after thy death can discharge the affairs of our kingdom. And
I said: O my lord the king, there is my son, who is superior to
me in cleverness and wisdom.
And the king said: Bring him unto me, that I may see
whether he will be able to stand in my royal court, and you
yourself be at rest for your life.
And I brought Nathan and stood him before the king. And
the king said: This day be blessed among days; for Khikar
during his lifetime has presented his son before me; and now do
thou Khikar live in repose.
And I had sated Nathan with teaching as with bread and
water; and in my teaching I thus spake:
Hear, my son, my words, and write thou my teaching in thy
book; and forget not that the years of thy life shall be multiplied,
and in glory and greatness (or wealth) thou shalt reach old age.
The instructions of Khikar, which he spake to Nathan his
sister’s son.
1. Son, if thou hearest anything in the court of the king,
bury it, and make it to die in thy heart, and to no one divulge it.
2. Son, loosen not the knot which is sealed, and that which
is loosed do thou not seal.
3. Son, raise not up thine eyes and look on a lovely woman,
antimonied and painted; nor desire her in thy heart; for if thou
shouldst squander? all thy riches on her, thou wilt get no more
1 There seems to be a lacuna after sleep. We add ‘‘ on the down of”’ or similarly.
2 So in ms but Canon and 131 read ‘‘ squander,’ which must be the correct
reading : Cod. g. 9 has ask,
L, A. H
58 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
than thine own, only sin and shame from men, and condemnation
from God.
4. Son, lower thine eyes, and soften the utterances of thy
mouth, and look out under thine eyes; and thou wilt not appear
to men quarrelsome and senseless, for if a house could be’ built
by hallooing any jackass would build seven palaces in a day.
5. Son, if the oxen by sheer strength drew along, the yoke
would not fail from the neck of the camel
6. Son, it is better with the wise man to hew stones, than
with a foolish man to drink wine.
7. Son, pour out thy wine on the earth, and drink it not with
the lawless, lest thou be regarded even as they.
8. Son, be not sweet, lest they swallow thee down, nor bitter
lest they spit thee out; but gentle and tranquil in the works of
thy paths thou shalt be.
9. Son, while the boot is on thy foot, tread down the thorns,
and make a path for thy sons.
10. Son, a rich man’s son? hath eaten a serpent, they say that
it is a medicine for him. A poor man’s son? ate it, they said that
he was hungry.
11. Son, eat thy portion in peace, and cast not thine eye on
that of thy companion.
12. Son, with him that hateth thee speak softly, and thou
wilt heap great judgment upon his head.
13. Son, the lawless man falleth by his evil deeds, but the
just man is raised up because of his good deeds.
14. Son, spare not thy son chastisement and the rod; for as
the dung is useful to the garden, and the tie to the packet, and
the tether on the foot of the ass, so is the whip useful to the
child.
15. Son,if thou chastise him calmly, he dieth not; but 1f thou
1 This is a conflation of two texts in one of which a camel drew the plough, in
the other oxen as in the Syriac. The meaning is that if the plough were not
guided by a human hand, rather than by the brute force of the animal, the
ploughing would never be over.
2 A version of the Syriac idiom,
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 59
abandon him to his own will, he becomes a thief and a fool ; and
they take him to execution and to the fetters, and he becomes
unto thee a reproach and breaking of heart.
16. Son, make thy child obedient, while he is small and
pliant, lest he come into open conflict with thee; and thou be
undone by his injury, and win the curses of strangers because of
his disobedience.
17. Son, acquire for thyself a sturdy ass and a strong hoofed
horse and an ox short in neck. But acquire not a runaway slave,
or a handmaid petulant of tongue and given to dancing.
18. Son, a false man is fond of his neighbour to his face; but
afterwards he is despised. But thou shalt be justified by thy
works. |
19. Son, false words are fatter than a quail; but he that is
foolish gulps them down.
20. Son, love the father who begat thee, and despise not thy
mother; and receive not the curses of thy father and mother, to
the end that thou mayest rejoice in the blessings of thy son.
21. Son, speak not in wrath with thine adversary before the
judges, lest thou receive punishment from the judge.
22. Son, by night go not forth upon the road without
a weapon, for thou knowest not whether thine enemy goes forth
to meet thee.
23. Son, as the tree is enjoyable for its fruit and branches,
and the mountain wooded with the cedars, in the same way it is
enjoyable to see a woman among her children, and brethren, and
beloved kinsmen; but a man who has not a wife and sons and
kinsmen and brethren, he is of small account, and a shadow; and
despised is he by all; and is like unto a tree which is in the
cross-ways, and all who pass by, pluck off her leaves and break
down her branches.
24. Son, say not: My lord is unwise, but Iam wise; but bear
with him in his folly, and thou shalt be made wise.
25. Son, hold not thyself to be wise, whenever thou art
testified to be so by many.
60 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
26. Son, when anyone else sends thee on some affair, add not
nor take away from the message, lest thou become a laughing-stock
and be contemned.
27. Son, in the multitude of thy children rejoice not, and in
their deficiency be not distressed ; for children and possessions are
bestowed by God. The rich man is made poor, and the poor man
is enriched.
98. Son, if thy neighbour have fallen sick, say not: What
shall I send to him? But go and see him, for that is better than
silver and many riches.
29. Son, in reward for evil speaking, receive not a bribe; for
such a deed is evil before God.
30. Son, keep thy mouth from lying speech, and thine eyes
from immodest glances.
31. Son, keep thy hand from stealing, and thy foot from evil
paths; and it will be well for thee with God and man. For
whether one steals gold, or some little thing, the punishment is
one and the same.
32. Son, a gold ring that is not thine, put not on thy finger;
nor clothe thee in byssus and purple robes, that are not thine, lest
the onlookers make mock of thee.
33. Son, when distress is visited upon thee by God, blaspheme
not; lest he be wroth, and destroy thee before thy time.
34. Son, take not a widowed woman to wite, for whenever
there 1s any word between you, she will say: Alas for my first
husband! And thou art distressed, and there will arise between
you a mighty quarrel.
35. Son, eat not thy bread at another's table, that you may
not incur an obligation from others.
36. Son, better is a bird in thy hand, than a thousand
fluttering in the heavens.
37. Son, better is a fat kid in thy house, than an ox and
a steer in the house of another.
38. Son, better is a rian blind of his eyes, than one blind in
his mind; for he that ih blind quickly learns the coming and
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 61
going of the road. But he that is blind in mind, forsakes the
straight road, and walks according to his will.
39. Son, a good name is better than a face which excites
longing. For the face perishes and fails, but a good name endureth
for ever. Better is a friend that is near, than a brother living
afar off.
40. Son, better is hatred and a quarrel with a righteous
man than sweetness and compassion at the hands of a lawless
man.
41. Son, it is better for man to live upon snow and ice, than
with a shameless woman, that cries out and is glib of tongue.
42. Son, better is one measure of a wise man’s copper, than
a hundred measures of a fool’s silver.
43. Son, the garment of a wise man is praised in the market
place, but the silver of a senseless one is hidden in darkness.
44, on, if anyone be in durance vile, and thou canst aid him
with a word, it is as if thou didst rescue him from the mouth of
a lion.
45. Son, a slave who sins against his master, and proceeds
into a strange land, let him find no rest nor any mercy of God.
46, Son, test thy son, to see if he be wise; and then thou
shalt give thy possessions into his hands.
47. Son, from the house of invitation and from the wedding,
withdraw quickly before thy neighbour, and return not again.
Thus thou shalt anoint thy head with sweet oil.
48. Son, have no quarrel with one stronger than thyself.
49. Son, if the door-posts of thy house be lofty some nine (?)?
ells, whenever thou enterest bow thy head. In order that subse-
quently thou mayest not have cause to repent.
50. Son, take not with a big weight, and give with a little
one, and then say: I have made a profit. For such an action ts
iniquitous and evil in the sight of God; and God will be angry
with thee, and will give into the hands of others what thou hast.
1 Through loss of a leaf precepts 48-55 are lacking in Bodl. g. 9, and are supplied
from Bodl. Canon 181. ;
62 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
51. Son, swear not falsely, that of thy days there be no fail,
and thou perish not.
52. Son, if thou wouldest ask anything of God, transgress not
his will.
53. Son, whatsoever thou wouldst that men should do unto
thee, do thyself unto all; m order that thou mayest win good from
God, and that thy years may be many’.
54, Son, whenever thou art among many, beware of revealing
thy poverty; for they will not listen to thy words, and thou art
despised by them.
55. Son, love thy wife, for she is thy flesh, and the companion
of thy life, and she worketh hard nurturing thy children.
56. Son, with the wife of a stranger hold no intercourse; for
such an action is franght with death, and is evil before God and
man.
57. Son, love thy brother like thyself, and teach thy son to
bear hunger and thirst; so that he may behave in accordance
with thine own habits, and may be able to endure it, when there
is no food to be found.
58. Son, if thy master send thee to bring to him a manured (?)
grape, bring not the grape to him; for he eats the grape, but lets
thee not off the punishment of the manure (?).
59. Son, if a man’s actions be not upright, and if he bear not
a good name, it is better for him to die than to live.
60. Son, better is poverty with repose, than riches with
phrensy (?).
61. Son, say not an evil thing to thy friend; but rejoice in
his presence, that he may be continually glad.
62. Son, condescend with thy wife; but reveal not to her
thy secrets: for she cannot keep a word in her heart, but reveals
it to her neighbours; for she is stunted in mind and small of
spirit, and is unable to endure.
1 The us has ambq qo zatanay “that thy clouds may be scparated.’’ I correct
to amg go shatanay and render accordingly.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 68
63. Son, receive not what thou hast not deposited, and that
which is not thine, bestow not upon others.
64, Son, ponder a word in thy heart and then utter it. For
if subsequently thou changest the word, thou becomest a laughing-
stock. |
65. Son, utter not an empty word in thy mouth; for better
isa sin in the flesh, than sin with the tongue.
66. Son, if thou hearest an evil word about anyone, hide it in
thy heart, so that no one may hear the mischief from thy
mouth.
67. Son, plunge not into the midst of a quarrel, lest thou be
buffeted and punished, and lest thou die for nothing; but flee
and keep afar therefrom. @
68. Son, do thou not scoff frivolously, for from scoffing
a quarrel arises, and from the quarrel slaying.
69. Son, if thou wilt be wise, keep thy mouth from babbling,
and look out under thine eyes: and thou shalt become wise among
thy fellows.
70. Son, a man who spends his time justly and nghteously,
his days shall not be shortened.
71. Son, even though thou be poor, on the day of offerings,
hold not aloof from God.
72. Son, I have eaten chickweed, and I have drunk fetid
water, and it was not more bitter than exile in a strange land.
73. Son, on the day of thy sacrifice, be liberal of thy hand
and stint not in thy heart. For God is not pleased, and thou art
held of no account by men.
74. Son, quit not the mourning scene, but quit the wedding
and repair to the mourning scene ; for death lies ahead of us all.
75. Son, mount not on a horse that is not thine, and even if
thou art very hungry, eat not bread that 1s not thine.
76. Son, reveal thy secrets before thy friend, and after some
days, provoke him. If he does not reveal the secret thou didst
tell him, let him be thy friend. For he has been found true to
thee,
64 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
77. Son, it is better if they steal all thy goods, than that
they should detect theft in thee.
78. Son, rejoice not in the death of thy enemies, for death
impends before thee also.
79. Son, when anyone asks for goods of thee, prevent him not,
even if thou canst. For thou wilt receive from God a hundred-
fold for one.
80. Son, whenever thou beholdest an aged man, do thou rise
and stand up before him and magnify him ; and when thou growest
old, others will do the same to thee.
81. Son, only when the rivers pause in their flow, or the sun in
his course, or gall becomes sweet as honey, or the raven becomes
white as the dove, will the fool abandon his folly and the senseless
man his path.
82. Son, go not too often on foot to thy friend’s house, lest he
be surfeited and loathe thee.
83. Son, a dog that leaves his master and follows after thee,
drive him away with stones.
84. Son, an ill word is witness of falsehood, and he who is not
afraid of sin, shall become a coal of fire.
85. Son, do thou fear God and let none see evil deeds of
thine, in order that they may not learn of thee.
86. Son, acquire not riches by injustice, lest all thy possessions
be destroyed.
87. Son, flee from a bad man, and with a wise man be thy path.
88. Son, avarice is mother of sin and parent of evil; but pity
and truth are dispensers of good.
89. Son, ruin of the soul and an evil memory are due to
avarice ; and they that love riches hate their friends, and all misers
are estranged from good works.
90. Son, sow not a judgment of injustice; although thou
mayest overcome thy opponent, yet be in fear of God’s judgment.
91. Son, array thee not in the armour of evil! lest thou be
handed over tio evil hangmen.
1 Of the evil one: Bod. and Canon 131.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 65
92. Son, be attentive to God’s commands, and fear not evil,
for the command of God is a man’s rampart.
93. Son, listen not to evil-speaking about anyone, for it is
a two-edged sword, and wounds the ears of the listener,
94. Son, of him that loves peace the heart is continually full
of joy and gladness, and at all times he is praised in the market
place.
95. Son, continually practise thy tongue in goodly conversation,
and among thy companions thou wilt seem to be delightful; for
an evil word quickly penetrates the ears of men.
96. Son, expel from thy heart all enmity and rivalry; for it
is an evil seed, and begetteth evil.
97. Son, he that is glad in heart is a sun luminous: and he
that 1s narrow and malicious in spirit is a lowering darkness.
98. Son, he that is generous in heart is full of goodness, but
he that is crafty is void of all blessings.
99. Son, he that has much wealth and is avaricious, such
a one, even if he liveth, is dead.
100. Son, he that ridicules the poor man, makes God angry;
and will himself quickly descend to poverty.
101. Son, let thy words be true and just and not ambiguous;
for from falsehood is engendered much evil; but from truth,
honour and credit at all times.
102. Son, from an unjust and lawless man flee away, for they
have betrayed themselves to ruin and destruction.
103. Son, if thou wouldest make wealth, boast not before men.
For if thou failest, thou wilt become the mockery of many.
104. Son, a reliable word is better than gifts, and an unreliable
word is continually tripping in all things.
105. Son, avoid being a guarantor, for thou wilt suffer much
anguish therefrom, and must discharge the debt.
106. Son, love not strife, for it is death of deaths; and never
' go to law, for in opposed words many a snare lurks,
107. Son, soft words are as water which extinguishes a hot
coal, even so they extinguish the savage hearts of men.
L. A, I
66 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
108. Son, give advice to all men, to the end that thou mayest
be called wise and discreet.
109. Son, help the fallen and weak and feeble, so far forth as
thou art able, for such conduct rewards thee with God.
110. Son, overweening men are far from friendship and from
deep affection; and they bring reproaches upon themselves, and
detach themselves from their neighbours.
111. Son, swinish and greedy men will break off from their
true friends.
112. Son, before all things fear thy tongue as a stranger;
for thou dost not know how soon it will bring evil upon thee.
113. Son, the tongue of a senseless and drunken man is as
the hollow! of a needle. Another it cannot strike, but ever bruises
its own head,
114, Son, better for thee is enmity with a wise man, than
the affection of a man senseless and brazen.
115. Son, a man that is senseless, better is he to thee as an
enemy than as a friend, so from thy secrets hold him aloof.
116. Son, send not as thy envoy a witless man and a
drunkard, nor as thy intercessor; for he is not willing to effect
thy good, but will bring many evils upon thee.
117. Son, if thou give advice to the witless, it is as if men
sprinkled dust on a swollen river.
118. Son, if a man be a babbler and a braggart, encourage
him not to visit thy house, for fear that thou too be made
ashamed of thyself through his actions.
119. Son, if thou enjoy wealth all thy life in the world,
forget not the day of thy death, but continually bear it in mind.
120. Son, gaze long? into the tombs of thy neighbours, and
remember thy own death, and shed a tear.
121. Son, when thou seest thy comrade dead, pass not by
him; but run and mourn for him yourself. For the same day is
imminent and prepared for thee.
2 Or palate.
” Lit, gazing gaze,
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 67
122. Son, God made wine for rejoicing, but in sundry places
it is better to drink muck than wine.
123. Son, wine sometimes raises men to glory, and sometimes
fills them with shame, and turns them to ridicule.:
124, Son, it is better to have a quarrel with a man that is a
clown, than with a senseless and shameless woman.
125. Son, when thy wife says, I will strangle myself at your
hands, do thou look out for thyself; for she intends to strangle thee.
126. Son, a senseless fellow when he goes into the presence
of kings, in his duplicity seeks excuses, and all the more enrages
the hearts of kings and excites mischief against himself.
127. Son, a man of evil designs and envious, not only designs
evil to those whom he hates, but his nature is opposed to all.
128. Son, an ill-disposed and impious man, when he beholds
the agitation of his neighbour, delights and is glad. He thinks in
his heart that it adds some lustre to himself.
129. Son, when thy master’s eye is amiable, fear him, for
thou art thy own intercessor; and let it not be that thou make
him angry with yourself, for thou wilt blame and find fault with
thyself.
130. Son, whenever you see yourself to be glorious and
mighty in the eyes of kings, even though your enemies are many,
all will second you in your testimony, as if you were their trusty
friend.
131. Son, when you are despised in the eyes of kings, all your
friends will become haters of yourself, and your friends will hold
aloof.
1382. Son, say not to the poor man, You can never do me
harm. For from the most abject of men proceed many harms,
and not from those who are held in honour.
133. Son, it is better if one of your friend’s dogs should cling
to you, than that one who hates you should howl against you’.
1 Or we could render: ‘it is better if a harlot among your friends.” But in
any case some error lurks in the text, which must have run somehow as follows :
‘*it is better if your friend’s dog should bite you....”
68 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
134. Son, a servant who is double-minded towards his master,
even though he be fond of you, yet never confide in him; for
a servant who forgets his master, brings you no good, but only
evil.
135. Son, a woman who flouts her husband and says to you:
You are more fair than my husband, and are pleasing in my eyes,
be on your guard against her in your thoughts. For such a woman
resembles a slut of a dog; for she follows every man. Moreover
she resembles a deadly drug concealed in delicious meats.
136. Son, fora crafty man God exists not: and for a chatterer
peace exists not: on earth also no rest.
137. Son, an overweening fellow will lack his livelihood.
138. Son, exchange not a work of God for this world’s life
and desires. The godhead was able to become a participant in
the nature of the world’s life.
139. Son, the desire of this world in the eyes of all who see
resembles the lion who was born by night, and they reared him in
the dark. He beheld the sun’s effulgence, and reckoned all his
life to have been in hell.
140, Son, a wise man, so far forth as he is renowned, accepts
the worlds greatness, and pursues the work of God. And, praised
of all saints, he resembles the sun above; for the more he is
uplifted, the more doth his effulgence increase.
141. Son, an idler and arrogant man, in proportion as he is
renowned, and accepts the world’s riches (or greatness), is detested
of saints and an enemy of the church. He resembles a cloud
which is lowering and murky. Whenever it gathers strength it
sweeps on and works havoc to the land, and plucks up the crops
by the root and the green herbs with its hail.
142. Son, a good king raises up the world, but a bad and
abominable king, even though he enjoys his kingdom in his
lifetime, yet brings upon the world much commotion and many
evils, and of his own accord weaves destruction for himself.
143. Son, a man who is greedy and slothful(?) in war,
resembles a bird that 1s gorged on carrion, for he is heavy, and his
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 69
wings are relaxed; and is easily caught by the fowlers and
destroyed. Even so a man that is slothful(?) and drunken, is
exhausted of intelligence, and is easily taken in a snare.
144, Son, a witless man imagines in his mind that, when
he enters into the tribulation (?) of kings, he will be increased in
his glory; but he does not understand that death easily over-
takes him,
145. Son, do not inflame your heart with the surly words of
your comrade, until you have done something and tested him to
see whether he be good or bad. For one who is by nature deceitful,
because you may entrust all your property to him, will not give
up his disposition.
146. Son, be not double-tongued among your companions,
For you imagine you are loved of all, but do not realise that,
whenever your actions reveal your true character, you will be put
to shame and become a laughing-stock, and it will be bitterer for
you than death.
147. Son, plan not evil against your comrade, lest you be
evilly destroyed,
148. Son, as the mountains are storehouses of ice and frost,
so the hearts of deceivers are a habitation of evil things.
149. Son, an impious man frequents the crossways, and gets
ready his armour for shedding of blood, and robbing the poor of
their belongings. Yet he shall give of his own blood, for the
roads to taste it.
150. Son, a strumpet resembles a tomb whitewashed and
neat (?), but underneath it is full of stench and of dead bones.
Again, she is like a fair tree which should bear bitter fruit; and
when you survey the beauty of the tree, you taste the bitterness
of the fruit, and in sorrow turn away your countenance therefrom,
151. Son when you gaze on the beauty of women, your eyes
cause you to stumble, but your heart will suffer in proportion (2),
in order that the onset (?) of the evil one and the snares of death
may pass away from you.
152. Son, covet not another's wife, to fulfil thy desire; for
70 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
she 1s like brine, since the more you drink, the more your thirst
increases; and the wickedness is multiplied, and weighs you down
like a heavy burden.
153. Son, ‘tis not every man inherits the name of man, but
only he that is wise. For, as a blind man misses light and
warmth, and as the sun is from its rays conceived as lightgiving,
and the lion from its valour and strength is called mighty, and
the falcon is praised for the swiftness of its wings; so a wise man
is magnified and honoured by kings, and in their gates is as gold
and precious stones.
154. Son, men’s desire and women’s beauty to the eyesight
are deceitful and work a snare for the soul.
155. Son, the tongue of a wise notary from his tablets dis-
courses peace; and the mind of a treacherous man is like the
forge (?) of a smith flaming up with fire of the blazing embers.
So also the crafty one speaketh craft.
156. Son, treachery wears a double aspect: if you see the
crafty man about to assassinate his master, and do not reveal it to
him, you are guilty of his death.
157. Son, God is not friendly to a man of swinish mind, nor
to a crafty man either.
158. Son, a man of swinish mind and disdainful imagines
that he glorifies his name and by means of empty words strengthens
his professions; but he is slow to fulfil them and is blamed for
his duplicity, and is with opprobrium exposed in the market
place. :
159. Son, promise not to your neighbour what you can not
fulfil; lest his affection turn into hatred.
160. Son, a man witless and drunken repeatedly receives
homage from men by reason of his false utterances; but what he
says he fulfils not. He resembles a leather bottle blown out and
full of air, but empty of potables; and he shows himself by fulness,
but when they open his mouth, there 1s found no joy in him.
161. Son, a swinish fellow imagines that his life cannot pass
away, and that his wealth fails not. But this he knows not, that
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 71
others will snatch the multitude of his goods, nor remember his
name for good.
162. Son, when you proceed to war, go not with one who
is a coward, for fetters(?) are on the feet of your charger, to wit a
coward (?); and he makes your valour of no effect. And he
immediately rolls on the ground and inflames the valour of your
adversary. But in the strife of battle be companion of a brave-
hearted man; that, when he triumphs over his enemy, you along
with him be praised and glorified by the princes; while if you
be conquered by the foe, by very reason of your bravery he shall
hft you up again.
168. Son, the fool, though he be glorified in presence of
kings, cannot conceal his disposition.
164. Son, a swinish fellow, though he has great wealth,
pinches his own heart, and passes his life away in bitterness.
165. Son, one who is blithe and generous, is beloved of men,
and is added to in his life, and is opposed to the swinish.
166. Son, if you desire to be called wise by men, and are
honoured by God and by kings, first do you contemn the desire of
the world, nor indulge in drunkenness. For in many ways it
causes the children to stumble and they are prone to take to evil
courses, and to forsake the truth, and are despised in their many
utterances, and reveal the secrets of princes, and babble out of
vain-glory. They forsake good works and are emptied of wisdom,
nor do they judge fairly the causes of widows and orphans. They
drive themselves unto death and are not able to be wary, but
expose themselves naked before kings and before their enemies,
and are put to shame by all.
167. Son, when you encounter a shameless woman, a fire
is brought mgh unto your flanks, and a deadly serpent to your
storehouse, and a wild beast of the thicket to your pacts, and a foe
armed with sword to your host.
168. Son, a strumpet imagines saying: Of myself I hide my
deeds. She is like unto a dead dog. Because of her horrible
rottenness she cannot conceal her stench,
72 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
169. Son, a fool, when he is drunk, is all agog for war. He
imagines himself to be conspicuous among men of valour and
nobility. And he realises not that if he meets a brave-hearted
man and doughty, the latter will with a touch of his hand fling
him down senseless, and destroy his name upon earth.
170. Son, a fool boasts before the battle, and praises himself;
but in the time of battle he maketh himself a reproach before all.
171. Son, an ignorant king and ruler contemns the wise man
and flouts his wisdom; and elevates the wanting in wit and the
worthless. He is like unto the irrational and witless beasts of
the field.
172. Son, when you are drunk, keep your mouth shut and
talk not ; for your temper is not under your control (or your nature
is not in your hand).
173. Son, as earth is mother of all plants and shrubs, so is
drunkenness mother of all evils.
174. Son, if you rule the world and are lord of all men, keep
yourself from drunkenness; that you lose not all concern for
things of heaven or of earth.
175. Son, a sovereign that loves good is victorious and
renowned in war and battle, and by his valour smites down
his foes.
176. Son, an irreverent and impious man, though he possesses
arms and cuirass, yet is exposed naked before his foes.
177. Son, if to understand be wisdom, yet ’tis to be carried
out. For if a man understands, yet performeth not, he is void
of wit. .
178. Son, an adulteress not merely defiles herself, but also
her husband and the foundations of her home.
179. Son, I have beheld a wild beast of might, and he rushed
not on me; I met an enemy who rushed, but I was not overcome
by him. I encountered a strumpet and senseless woman, and
I was overcome by her.
180. Son, be not without scholarship, for to read and learn
and sign his name improves the wise and talented man.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 73
181. Son, flee from drunkenness; and from authority, and
from over-weeningness, hold aloof as from a mad dog. For
drunkenness destroys the nature of the judgment, and arro-
gance ravages all humanity, and becomes inhuman and useless.
182. Son, with an ill-instructed man discourse not at all.
With one who lacks judgment, drink not. Associate not with
a witless fellow, make not an ignorant one your steward, for he
will plunder your household.
183. Son, have no fear of anyone who stands in fear of God.
Honour the guileless man, but look not unto the crafty.
184, Son, invite not the actor into thy house. Go not
unseasonably to war. Return not evil for evil. Slumber not too
long of a night.
185. Son, talk with the poor man as with kings; be not
eager among those who have too much(?); converse not with an
uncultivated man.
186. Son, keep yourself in humility always. For humility is
mother of peace and habitation of whole health, and he that
practises it 1s praised by God and by men. And he who fulfils
these precepts, shall become wise and glorious among men.
End of the precepts and parables, which Khikar addressed to
Nathan, his sister’s son, and it was all for nought.
All this I taught to Nathan my sister's son, thus thinking that
what I taught he kept in his heart and would live at the royal
gate. And I knew not that he scorned my words and scattered
them like dust before the wind. Straightway he began to waste my
chattels and my possessions. He spared not my slaves and
maidservants, nor even my favourites and my fnends, but he
bound and ill-treated them; with violent blows he wounded and
destroyed my steeds continually.
When I saw that Nathan played false to my interests, then
I withdrew from him my chattels lest he should ruin them. And
I said to Nathan: Come not near to my chattels, for it is said
by the wise, that hands that have not been hard-worked, the eye
shall not spare. And I went and told my lord Senekarim. And
BE, A, K
74 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
the king gave orders to Nathan and said: As long as thy father
Khikar is alive, go not near his possessions; but remain in the
royal gate, and let thy father Khikar remain in his gate, and rest
in his old age.
When I, Khikar, saw all this that Nathan did, I said in my
heart: Alas, how hath Nathan despised my sweet advice and set
at nought and utterly despised all my wisdom,
Then Nathan went to the house of the king, and planned very
great evils for me. For he wrote two letters. One he sent to
Pharaoh king of Egypt, for he was an enemy of my lord Senekarim,
and 1t was written as follows:
IT Khikar, notary of Senekarim king of Asorestan and of
Nineveh, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, do write. Be it in thy
cognizance, when this dispatch reaches thee, at once shalt thou
muster thy forces and come to the Plain of the Eagles on the 15th’
day of the month Hrotitz, and I will take and make thee king
over these without trouble.
And again a letter which had this tenor :
From Senekarim king, health to Khikar, notary of my tribunal.
When this dispatch shall reach thee, thou shalt prepare my forces
which are subject to thee; exactly on the 15th day of the month
Hrotitz, thou shalt come to meet me on the Plain of Hagles. And
when thou comest near draw them up face to face against my
forces, as if they were being prepared against thine enemies.
For the envoys of Pharaoh are come unto me to see our forces and
tremble.
And this letter Nathan sent to me as if by the command of
the king. But he himself, Nathan, stood before the king and
said: O king, live for ever. I have eaten bread and salt in thy
house, and God forbid that I should deceive my king.
For my father Khikar, whom thou didst send unto rest, unto
honour, unto glory, hath not done according to the command of
thy kingship, but hath played false to God and thy kingship.
And he had given the letter to certain trusty men of the king.
1 «¢95th ” in Canon 131,
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 75
and they gave it to the sovereign, and the sovereign gave it to
Nathan and said: Read.
And Nathan read it before the king, and the king was sorely
troubled, and asked those who gave him the letter: Who gave
this letter into your hands? And as Nathan had charged them,
they answered with one mind, saying: Travellers that were going
into Egypt. They had the letter on them, and we thy servants
found them and took them by force. And when he asked them:
Whence are ye? They answered: We are native slaves of Khikar.
And the king was troubled and said to the trusty men: What
harm then have I done to Khikar, that he has devised such
a snare for me? Wherefore hath he returned evil for good ?
Nathan replied and said: Be not troubled, O mighty king. But
let us go to the Plain of the Eagles, as is written in the dispatch ;
and let us see if it is so, and then let thy behests be carned
out.
And Nathan took the king, and went to the Plain of the
Eagles. But I, Khikar, when I heard of the setting out of the
king, had prepared my forces and arrayed them over against him,
according as it had been written in the dispatch at the behest of
the king.
When the king saw my forces he was sorely troubled. And
Nathan ‘said: Be not troubled, O my king: for I will bring
Khikar my father into thy presence.
The king said: If thou shouldst bring Khikar before me,
mighty presents will I give thee, and all the royal affairs shall be
transacted by thee; for thou hast been found a trusty servant
before me. And the king went back into his palace.
And Nathan came to me and said: My father Khikar, very
honourable and pleasing hath seemed unto the king this preparing
of thy cavalry in array. Therefore hath he sent me to thee, to
say: All thou hast done, thou hast done well and wisely. So
then give orders to thy forces to go to yonder place, and do thou
come, and let us make merry together. And I Khikar went forth,
and came before the king as if to perform his behests, and as if
76 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
I was now worthy of honour; but I knew not of the penalty, for
I was innocent.
And the king said to me: Thou Khikar, chief notary and sage,
I set thee up as a ruler over my household of Nineveh and Assyria,
and I made thee my counsellor, and thou hast betrayed me into
the hands of my oppressors.
And he gave me the letter, which Nathan had written, and in
it was imitated my handwriting and seal. But when I read it,
my limbs were dissolved, and my tongue was shrivelled up as
parchment. I sought for a word of wisdom to give answer and
found it not. My soul was filled with misgivings, and I became as
one of those distraught. I was silent, and paused.
Then said Nathan to me: Get thee out of the king’s presence,
decrepit one with thy gray hairs. Yield up thyself, thy hands for
the fetters and for the halter, and thy feet for the iron. The king
addressed Abusmak my comrade and said: Take Khikar and slay
him, and remove his head afar from him, 100 ells. And I fell on
my face, and kissed the earth before the king, and said: My lord
the king, thou hast willed me to slaying, but I am conscious of
having sinned in nothing against my king. So then command
that they shall slay me in my own house, and carry my body unto
burial.
And the king proceeded to give command to do so. But I sent
to Arphestan my wife, and said: Send to meet me a thousand
maidens, and let them be clad in mourning, and be lamenting me;
in order that I may witness my mourning with my own eyes,
while I am still alive. And thou shalt make bread, and prepare
a table, adorned with all good things, for Abusmak and the
Parthians that are with me. These thou shalt go out to meet,
and shalt lead them into the house.
And Arphestan my wife immediately did what I had com-
manded, and they set out to my house. And Abusmak and the
Parthians lay down, and my wife set the table before them and
waited on them. And I went in with them to eat bread, but
they were fuddled with wine.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 77
And I said to Abusmak my comrade: Look up to heaven and
discern God with thine eyes, and remember the love of our
brotherhood. And sin not against my blood, for thou knowest
that I am innocent. But remember also this, that the Sire of
Senekarim gave thee into my hands for slaying; and I wronged
thee not, for I knew that thou wast innocent. And I kept thee
until the king made a request; and then I led thee before him
and the king gave me mighty gifts. This do thou likewise, and
slay me not; there is my slave whose name is Séniphar and very
like unto me is he. And he is in prison, because he is under
sentence of death. So then lead me into prison; but dress him
up in my garments and cast him to the Parthians, for them to
slay him; and so thou wilt fulfil the king’s command.
And when I said this, Abusmak had pity on me, and did my
will and what I told him. But the soldiers, fuddled with drink,
woke up at midnight, and slew Séniphar my slave. Then Abusmak
my comrade and Arphestan my wife made me a house dug out
underground, its height 3 ells, and its length 7 ells, equal to the
doorposts of my house. And they placed beside me bread and
water; and then Abusmak went off to the king, and told him
saying: Khikar is slain. Then the king called Nathan and said
to him; Go make lamentation for thy father Khikar.
And Nathan went off to the house of Khikar, but with him
there was no concern for mourning. And he collected all his
favourites to drink wine and make great good cheer, instead of
mourning as the king commanded. Using force to the favourites
of Khikar, he tortured them, and had no respect for Arphestan,
the wife of Khikar, nay was rather minded to fornicate with her.
And I Khikar could hear the voice of my stewards whom
Nathan was torturing and ill-treating. And I was tortured in
the darkness. And my soul was longing for bread and a morsel
of meat. And when Pharaoh heard that Khikar was slain, he was
very glad, and wrote a letter to the king Senekarim, containing
riddles. And the king called Nathan and said: Write an answer
to this letter. (But Nathan said: Difficult is the matter. Who
78 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
is able to give an answer thereto ?)! And the king was distressed
and said: Alas for Khikar my secretary and wise man.
But when Pharaoh learned that they could not give an answer
to his writing he sent a puissant army and they took tribute from
Senekarim. And as long as Khikar languished in the prison the
burden of Pharach was multiplied on Asorestan and Nineveh.
Those who were under the hand of Senekarim were also much
impoverished, and all the land laid waste, and the chambers of the
royal treasury were empty.
And the king in his trouble said: Alas for Khikar, my
secretary and wise man. He who should give thee to me alive,
many possessions would I give him, even to the half of my
kingdom. But Abusmak revealed the secret not to the king, in
order that he might be hard pressed and know the value to him
of Khikar.
And Pharaoh sent a dispatch to king Senekarim, which had
this tenor:
From Pharaoh to Senekarim health. I desire to build a palace
half way between heaven and earth. Look thou at once, and send
a wise and clever man to do my will. But if thou shouldst
neglect my behest, then I will arise, and come with a great army,
and take away thy kingdom.
When King Senekarim heard this, he summoned all his
satraps and his magnates, and Nathan read the letter of Pharaoh
the king. And they were perplexed and said: To such a problem
Khikar could give answer; and now Nathan, who 1s in his place,
will give answer to this difficult problem.
But when Nathan heard this he cried aloud and said: O King,
live for ever. Such a matter as this the gods could not make
answer to. Surely then not men ?
When the king heard this he was very troubled. He rose
from his throne and sat on sackcloth, struck his person and said:
Alas for Khikar, able notary and wise. On the words of a lying
1 The words in brackets are omitted in Bodl. g.9. I supply them from Canon
137.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 79
man I slew thee. Yet there is none like thee, and there is no
successor to thee in the royal gate. If anyone gave thee to me,
I would weigh him against gold and buy thee. When Abusmak
learned the deep distress of the king, he said: My lord king, he
that despises the behests of his lord, and fulfils them not, is guilty
of death. Now then this word of mine is fulfilled in me. For
I have not fulfilled the behests of my king. Thou didst order me
to slay Khikar, and yet he is still alive.
And the king said: Speak, speak, my servant, well-doing and
trusty. For thou hast not sinned; but thou hast obtained many
good things. If thou showest me Khikar, I will give thee royal
purples and 100,000 talents of gold.
And Abusmak came, and lifted me out of the pit of darkness,
and led me before the king. And I fell down and kissed the
earth before him, but the hair of my head was matted and also my
beard.
Then with a great voice the king cried out: Blessed am I,
and blessed is this day, for I have seen Khikar alive. And he
sent me to the bath for them to wash and anoint me with fragrant
oil, And they did so, and brought raiment of great price and
clad me in it. And then the king brought and set me close to
him. And all his promises to Abusmak he amply fulfilled.
Then the king brought the letter of Pharaoh and gave it to
me, and said: Read and give an answer to this letter.
But I took and read it, and said to the king: Send yon envoys
to return to their place. And I later on will set out, and fulfil
the behests of Pharaoh.
And when they were gone, I Khikar, the secretary, sent and
brought two eaglets, and I brought two clever children, and
taught them to feed the eaglets with raw meat. And when their
wings were firm set and strong, and they came and went in their
soaring, then I fixed to them a box of wood, leaving the top side
open. And they placed the children in 1t, and I trained the
eaglets so that they should soar up into the air, and thus I taught
them many days. And there was in the hands of each of the
80 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
children a mouthful of meat, and if they lifted up the flesh, the
birds rose and made after it, while if they lowered it, the birds
followed also. And I took them, and went to Egypt, and
presented myself before Pharaoh, and kissed the ground before
him. And Pharaoh honoured me greatly, and made me sit down
at his side, and asked: Where are the craftsmen who are going to
build the temple? And I answered: On the road; they were at
work and are now asleep.
And at dawn Pharaoh went forth and called me, and said:
Here above the city I would like to have it built, in order that
I may look over the city, and rejoice. And I said: O King, live for
ever, Give wages to the artists, for them to come and build.
Said Pharaoh: I swear by my head, that whenever I see thy
artists mount up in the air to build the palace, I will give thee
much gold and silver. |
So I went away and got things ready, and let the birds fly:
and they took their way, and rose and went up into the air, even
as they had been taught to do by me; and the children cried:
Bring up lime and mortar; the artists are idle.
But Pharaoh honoured me greatly, and gave me fine raiment,
and adorned me, as well as the artists. And he said: Take the
craftsmen to thy lodgings, but do thou come to me, for me to ask
thee some things. So I went to my lodgings, ate and drank and
was glad. Then I went to Pharaoh, and he said to me: Why,
when thy steeds neighed in Assyria, did our mares hear it and
miscarry ?
But I Khikar went out from him, and ordered a cat to be
brought, which I bound and ill-treated. And when all the people
of the city heard of it, they went and informed Pharaoh, saying:
Khikar is insulting our gods. For he has taken a cat and tortured
it before our eyes.
And the king called me and said: Wherefore dost thou insult
our gods? But I answered: I have had done to me so much hurt
by thy cat. For Senekarim the king had given me a cock which
was wont to wake me up with its crowing in time to go to the
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 81
palace. This night the cat went to Assyria, strangled my cock,
and came back here.
Pharaoh answered: O Khikar, thus can I see how old thou
art grown, and how thy wisdom has lost its savour. From Egypt
to Assyria is 360 leagues, and how could your cat go there in this
one night, strangle your cock and return here.
But I replied to Pharaoh: If you know that it is so far from
Egypt to Assyria, then how did your mares hear the neighing of
our steeds and miscarry ?
When the king heard this, he was much troubled and said:
Come and guess what I will ask of thee. There was a pillar, and
on the pillar twelve cedars, and on each cedar there were thirty
wheels and on each wheel two estafets, one black and one white.
I answered: The pillar you mention is the year, and the cedars
are the twelve months of the year; the thirty wheels are the
thirty days of the month, and the two estafets are day and night.
King Pharaoh said: Weave me a rope of sand, nine ells in
length and one palm! in thickness.
But I said: My lord king, order them to bring a model
out of thy treasury, in order that I may see it, and make my rope
on its pattern, lest it be a shadow or too fine spun. And Pharaoh
said: In my treasury, there is no such model; but unless you
weave it, you shall not carry away the silver which you sought by
ineans of your wisdom, and which I promised to give.
Then I thought deeply, and at the back of the house I pierced
the wall where the morning sun shone; and when the dawn
gleamed through, I mixed dust with sand, and threw it in the
entrance of the light, and a beam of light appeared like spindles.
And I said: My lord king, bid them gather up this for me to
weave it. When the king beheld it, he laughed and said: This
day be blessed among days, for I have seen Khikar alive before
the gods, and have beheld the wisdom of his mind and have been
glorified.
Again he honoured me, and made me sit at the head of the
1 long in Arm.
§2 THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
table, and bestowed great presents upon me, and gave me the
‘bullion which I had asked for, and sent me on my way in peace.
But I came back and reached my lord Senekarim, who came forth
to meet me, and welcomed me with great joy, and said to me:
Ask of me whatever thou wilt and I will give it thee. But
I kissed the ground before the king and said: Whatever thou
wouldest give me, give to Abusmak my companion, and giver of
my life. But give me Nathan, my sister’s son, in order that I may
teach him new lore, for he has forgotten the old.
And the king ordered Nathan to be given into my hands, and
said to me: Go and do whatever thou wilt, for the labourer is
worthy of his hire.
Then I took Nathan, and led him to my house; and bound
him to my pillar of iron, of which the weight was 700 utres; and
I placed a rope around his neck. And I gave him a thousand
blows with a club on his chest, and a thousand on his back. And
he was kept in the door of my portico. And I gave him bread by
weight and water by measure: and entrusted him to Béliar my
servant, and I said to him: In my goings out and my comings in,
whatever I say to Nathan write in thy book.
Further precepts of Khikar, which he addressed to his sister's
son Nathan.
1. Son Nathan, him that with his ears hears not, they make
to hear through his back and flanks.
Said Nathan: Wherefore art thou angry with thy sister's son ?
But I said to him:
2. Son, on the throne of glory I seated thee, but from my
throne thou didst hurl me down.
8. Son, thou hast been to me as a scorpion which struck the
needle. The needle said: Behold a sting which is worse than
thine own. Again thou didst strike the sole of the foot of the
camel, and he set his foot hard upon that scorpion and crushed it,
saying: Caitiff, knewest thou not that thy power was under my
feet ?
4. Son, thou hast been to me like a goat which was eating
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 83
madder. Says the madder: Why eatest thou me, if with my root
they dye thy skin? Said the goat: I in my life time eat thee,
but after my death they pluck up thy root, and prepare my skin.
5. Son, thou hast been to me like him that shot an arrow up
to the heaven; although he was not able to reach thereunto, yet
he reaped the reward of his impiety; for the arrow returned upon
his head.
5a. Son, the maggot of the bread ate the body of the king,
but was itself of no use to anyone nor profitable but vile.
6. Son, thou hast been to me as the wolf that encountered an
ass, and said: Peace be unto thee. The young ass said to him:
Peace to yonder lord of mine, who hath loosed the cord from my
feet, and let me behold thy face.
7. Son, thou thoughtest thus, saying: I will fill the place
of Khikar; but if the pig’s tail should be about nine ells long,
it could not take the place of the horse.
8. Son, I thus thought, that thou wouldst stay in my house,
and inherit my goods. But according to thy lawlessness, God has
not prospered thee.
9. Son, thou hast been to me like the lure which lay buried
in the dung, and it had a seed of corn in its mouth. A sparrow
saw it and said: What art thou? And it said: Bread for the
hungry. The sparrow answered: When thou art praying to God,
even so he hears thy prayers.
10. Son, thou hast been to me like a bold bad dog, that bit ,
his master’s leg (Ht. muscle).
11. Son, I nurtured thee like the young of an eagle, and thy
fingers were sharpened against my eyes, for thine eye was evil to
behold me.
12. Son, adog which abandons its master will become the prey
of the wolf.
13. Son, a hand which I nurtured and helps me not, from the
shoulder let it be lopped off.
14. Son, eyes that give me no light, let the ravens pluck
them out of their sockets.
84, THE WISDOM OF KHIKAR
15. Son, I have shown unto thee the face of the gods and the
palace ; and thou didst cast me down from my glory.
16. Son, thou hast been to me like the tree which they were
cutting down. Said the tree: If what is in thy hand were not
from me, thou wert not able to overcome me.
17. Son, thou hast been to me as the cat, to whom they said:
Give up thy ordinary manners, and it shall be free to thee to
enter the palace. But the cat said: If my eyes were of silver
and my paws of gold, I yet would not give up my customary
life.
18. Son Nathan, I gave thee to feast upon all my good things ;
but thou hast prevented my having bread of dust.
19. Son, I anointed thee with sweet oil, and I clad thee in
linen and purples; yet thou didst destroy my body in a house of
darkness.
20. Son, I reared thee like the cedar tree, as my eldest son ;
but thou in thy lifetime hast blinded me.
21. Son, I raised thee on high like a tower, so that if the
enemy should come against me, thou mightest be to me a fortress
of refuge; but thou thyself hast been found to be the enemy in
my house.
Nathan began to speak and said: My father Khikar, men sin
against God, and He forgives them. Forgive me, and sin not against
me, and I will be for thee a worthless slave, like one of those that
transgress,
22. Khikar said: Son, a certain man had planted a palm tree
on the banks of the river, and continually did the fruit fall into
the river. The lord of the tree came to cut it down, but the palm
tree said: Leave me this year, nor cut me down; and in the next
year I will bear fruit, and not cast it into the river. The lord of
the tree said: Thou in thy season hast borne me no fruit, and now
that I would cut thee down, how wilt thou become useful ?
23. Son, they said to the wolf: Keep away from the fold. It
answered: If I get away, I go blind; for the dust of the fold is
good for my eyes and heals them.
ARMENIAN RECENSION B 85
24. Son, the tail of a dog wins him bread, but his mouth
a cudgel.
25. In the same hour Nathan swelled up and burst asunder.
Then said Khikar:
Son, he that doeth well to the good, will meet with good; and
he that diggeth a pit for his neighbour, fills it with his own
person. He that loveth evil is hateful to many, and he that
pursues the good inherits it.
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
Vienna. Codex no. 468, fol. 54b
The clauses are given in the order of the Armenian original
J. Of the wise Khikar, the words, wisdoms and maxims. He
spake and taught, what the children of men should learn. Anda
father should give instruction to his son, and they should receive
understanding.
II. In the ancient dynasty, in the season of kings, there was a
king Senekarim by name, of Nineveh, of Kerman and Asorestan.
I Khikar the wise was 60 years of age. I took a wife. Boy or
girl I had not.
III. I went before my God, and divers offerings I made, and
having burned them, I prostrated myself before them, and I said:
IV. Alas. My Lords and Gods, of the first Belshim was the
name, of the second Shillim was the name, of the third the name
was Shahmil—be so good, give ye unto me a male child. For
behold, Khikar, living in him, dies not.
V. Let not the children of men say that Khikar the Wise,
the eloquent, is dead ; and that child he had none who might bury
him, and of his property (say), it 1s mine. Only let there be a son,
and if this day ten talents of gold shall be flung outside; 1t will
not be found that my property shall be exhausted.
VI. If there were a son who with two hands might cast dust
over me, and even as a son should unto me raise a memorial.
VII. In that hour there came unto me a voice from the gods,
and they said :
Khikar it is ordained that unto thee there shall be a son,
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 87
Take thy brother’s son for thyself, and nourish him, and let him
grow up. After thyself thy place shall be his.
VII. When I heard this voice from my gods, I took my
brother's son of one year old, I had him clothed in divers
vestments; and I put on his neck a gold necklace like a king’s
son; I gave him to drink wholly of milk and of clotted cream and
of wild honey.
YX. And I laid him to rest upon pillows of the down (2) of eagles
and of doves, until he was seven years of age. Thereafter I began
to teach him writing, philosophy and wisdom, knowledge of the
world, all sorts of actions, excellence and art .of contradictory
answer and speech.
X. By day and night I ceased not to instruct him, and sated
him with understanding and wisdom, as anyone might be sated
with water and with bread.
XI. Furthermore after that the king called me to his side and
said as follows:
Wise Khikar I behold thee that thou art grown old. After
thee who shall be perfect in eloquence, and in wisdom also service-
able tomy kingdom? Iam greatly distressed at this thing.
XII. I said: O my King, be not distressed. My son exists,
who will be more eloquent, wise and talented than myself.
XIII. The King said: Bring him before me, that I may see
him. I fetched him and set him before the king.
XIV. The King beheld and found pleasure and said: Blessed
shall be the days of this child, because Khikar has bestowed his
own wealth upon me. He shall himself be at rest.
XV. After that I prostrated myself to my king; I took my
son and went to my palace. In this wise I spake, instructing my
son by name Nadan.
1. My son, whatever thou hearest at a king’s threshold, hold
it fast in your heart, open it not to anyone. That which is bound
and sealed, unbind thou not: the unbound, bind thou not; and
whatsoever thou hearest, make not public, and utter not.
2. My son, shouldst thou, having opened thine eye, behold a
88 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
beautiful woman, because of her bedizenment and adornment, let
it not be that thou eye her with desire. If thou gavest thy
possessions in their entirety thou wouldst find the profit of thine
envious gazing to be no other than that thou receive con-
demnation from God and from mankind. For the reason that a
woman resembles a beautiful tomb; that tomb’s interior is full of
carnage and stench of death.
3. My son, be not like unto an almond tree, which of all trees
is first to bear flowers, but of all trees bears its fruit last. Rather
be like unto the mulberry tree, which is the last to flower, and the
first to bear fruit.
4. My son, it is better in company of a man of understanding
to haul stones around, than with a foolish man to drink wine.
5. My son, with men of understanding be not foolish and with
the foolish be not understanding.
6. My son, keep interest with the clever, if thou hast not
become clever as they. Let it not be that thou become a com-
panion of witless and foolish men; or they will call thee too
foolish and witless.
7. My son, it is better thou shouldst pour out thy wine, than
drink it with fools and witless men, lest it come to pass that they
despise thee.
8. My son, be not over sweet, or they will gulp thee down;
nor over bitter, for they will then spit thee out. But do thou be
gentle and patient in all thy pursuits and proceedings and in thine
every deed.
9. My son, while thy shoe is on thy foot, trample down the
thorns, and open the path for thy foot.
10. My son, a rich child ate a snake, they said that it was
medicine for him. A poor man’s son might eat it, they would say
he ate it out of hunger.
Therefore eat thine own portion, and rest not thine eye on thy
neighbour’s wife, nor on his property. Nor walk on thy road with
a man who is without fear of God, or with one who dissuades
froni peace; nor eat bread either with the like of him.
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 89
11. My son, shouldst thou behold thine enemy fallen, jibe not
nor make mockery of him. If he should rise erect, he would do
thee harm,
18. My son, love thy father and thy mother, who bore thee.
Thou wilt not receive their curse. Because a blessing of God, of
father and of mother, remains like... his curse. For thou shalt
rejoice in thyself... from thy children.
12. My son, a bad... will fall according to his badness: but a
good child will rise and stand according to his goodness.
13. My son, draw not nigh unto a bad and useless woman.
For men will for ever make thee an object for their ill-speaking, of
opprobrium also and insult. Hastening thy departure, flee from
the like of her.
14. My son, from the stick, from teaching, spare not in pity
thy child. That stick is to the child, as if thou shouldst spread
manure in a garden; and also as a seal upona letter. In the same
way it 1s good to repeat the blow upon the child. If once or twice
daily he be chastised with a rod, he is thereby rendered gentle, and
he dies not of it. If thou leave him to himself, he will become
a thief; and they will take him off to hang him or behead him, and
he will become for thee in consequence thereof a... Never out
of your mind will it pass away.
15 & 16. My son, discipline thy child in hunger and thirst ;
that in pride his own days may not pass away.
Should they report a saying from thine enemy, approve not
thereof, for the reason that they will report to him thine own
sayings.
19. My son, if thine enemy be without a companion of the
road, pass not along the road. Perchance thine enemy will ambush
thy road, and thou shalt die untimely.
20. My son, let it not be that thou say “my superior is silly
and I myself am a man of understanding”: and so praise thyself.
Rather submit to his silliness and draw nigh to the wise, in order
that outsiders may praise thee.
23. My son, never speak evil of anyone, and in the presence
L. A, M
90 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
of thy superior do it not, lest in the presence of men he insult
thee.
24, My son, when thou dost offer alms, leave not the beggar
hungry. Thou wilt so forfeit the approval of God.
25. My son, quit not sorrow or tears, nor start out straightway
to attend a banquet or a merry-making; because divers ways of
death he before us, and divers kinds of trials.
26. Any gold ring that is not thine, keep it not on thy finger;
and any garment that is not thine, put it not on; and any horse
whatever that is not thine, mount him not, lest thou become an
object of mockery.
27. My son, even if thou be hungry, any bread which is not
thine, eat not of it.
28. My son, a man who is stronger than thyself, with him
entertain not resistance, nor be opposed unto him.
So it shall not be that he fell thee to the ground and slay
thee.
29. My son, whatever good or evil thou hearest, hide it in
thy heart; from God it will be good for thee, and it will increase
thy life.
30. My son, if thy house be very tall, seven fathoms high,
bend thy neck and enter.
31. My son, receive not with a big measure, and give not with
a little one; and say not: I have made a profit. Such gain as
this, God augmenteth not, but vengeance exceeding; and thou
shalt perish of hunger.
32. My son, swear not falsely, lest thy days be diminished and
shortened. A liar’s days are made to be few.
33. My son, ever give ear to God’s commandments, and dread
not the ancient adversary. God’s command for a good man 1s a
stone rampart.
34. My son, because thy children are many, rejoice not; and
because of their being too few, weep not too much, nor mourn
exceedingly.
35. My son, children and chattels are the gifts of God. Yea,
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 91
the rich man is made poor, and the poor is made rich; and the
lowly becometh great, and the great man is brought low.
36. My son, if thy neighbour should be sick, say not: What
can I have taken to him? Rather go on thine own feet to his
side and see him with thine own eyes. Thy greeting of the sick
man 1s better than if thou gavest him gold or silver.
37. My son, in evil speaking thou stirrest up strife. Take
not gold or pearls. With this falsehood, trick not the upright.
Rather make the law upright; and if thou shed the upright man’s
blood, thine also they shall shed.
38. My son, keep thy tongue from evil speaking, thine eye
from evil glances. Whatsoever thou shalt steal, will bring death.
39. My son, commit not adultery with thy neighbour’s wife.
Later on thine own wife shall fall to thy neighbour, for him to trip
her up, and therefrom will accrue unto thee opprobrium.
40. My son, let it not be that thou take unto thyself a widowed
woman for thy wife. For let any dispute about aught arise
between you both, she will bethink her of her first master, and
thou wilt sorrow and be distressed.
41. My son, if a trial of any kind befall thee from God, be
it not that thou do hghtly murmur, lest he send thy past evil
irretrievably, and remove thee untimely from the world. Rather
be thou, whatever fate shall come from God, thankful; because
thankful lips render a debt of 500-fold on God.
42. My son, love not thy child more than thy slave. Thou
knowest not which of them and on what scale will be useful to thee.
44. My son, ever in thine own mind, reflect well; and honour
the old people, in order that thou mayest be honoured of God and
good accrue to thee.
46. Myson, during the season of thy youth be not over-bearing,
that during thy season thou perish not.
47. My son, grant not to thy neighbour that he tread upon
thy foot, lest he also tread on thy neck.
48. My son, with whomsoever thou standest before a judge,
let it not be that thou address him with petulance; rather however
99 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
they speak, make answer softly, and that judge shall swoop down
upon him.
49. My son, if from God thou makest petition for pardon, first
of all submit thyself to His behests with a calf of one year old, and
with fasting and with prayer. After that God will fulfil thy
petition.
50. My son, it is better thou shouldst establish thy name good
for ever, than that thou shouldst make thyself beautiful with
clothes. Beauty passes away, but a good name remains eternal.
51. My son, it 1s better to be blind of eye than blind of
understanding. With blindness you quickly learn the way along
the road; but with a blind understanding, one loses the right road
and proceeds by self-will.
53. Myson, it is better to accept poverty than squander wealth,
55. My son, seek out carefully in thy breast thy words, and
afterwards let the words issue from thy mouth. If thou sayest
now this thing, now that, thou becomest utterly soft.
56. My son, from whomsoever thou shalt hear an evil word,
lock it up in thy heart seven fathoms deep. The evil will die and
turn to goodness.
57. My son, laugh not idly at all. From such a laugh is en-
gendered strife, and from such strife is engendered death.
58. My son, a false word and falsehood are as heavy as lead ;
a few days afterwards they drift along the road like the leaf of a
tree.
59. Myson, utter not thy trifling counsels to thy friend. If
he should not make thy counsel public, then thou shalt communicate
to him also thy important counsels, and thou shalt keep him a faith-
ful and upright friend.
60. My son, do thou ever give before kings and magistrates
a welcome to thy fellow christian}; with word and with stave hold
him fast, that thou mayest save him from the lion’s mouth. He
will be to thee a reputation and a glory.
61. My son, if thine enemy come to thy foot, and ask for
1 The word christian is obviously an interpolation of the Armenian translator.
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 93
pardon, pardon him, and in thy heart laugh; and in his presence
rejoice and favour him.
62, My son, they that shall not invite thee to honour, go not
unto them; and if anyone asks not a word of thee, give him no
answer. And therefore walk not with thy feet incontinently on
any waters that are not frozen over, lest thou perish untimely.
66. My son, make trial of thy child with hunger and thirst
and poverty and old tattered raiment. If he be patient, give thy
possessions into his hand.
67. My son, whenever they invite thee to a dance or to a
wedding, join it. Thou shalt depart first before any of thy comrades:
and shalt not go there again a second time. So from God thou
winnest a good name, and receivest not wounds upon thy head.
70. My son, if thou be poor, make it not manifest among thy
companions, lest thou be made a butt and lest they give no ear
unto thy word.
74, My son, open not thy secrets nor thy saddlebags unto thy
wife, for this reason, that a female is not able to keep a secret.
She will publish it to her brethren and make a quarrel of it, and
they will strike thee dead.
75. My son, if thou be given to drinking, guard thy tongue
from babbling. For thee it will be better, and thou wilt be called
Wise. )
76. My son, render not up thy stronghold, nor thy goods,
without a written instrument, without a seal, and without a witness.
For he will forthwith deny thy intentions, and thou be grieved, and
lose thy possessions.
77. My son, from a good friend sever not thyself; if thou dost,
either thou wilt find a friend like him, or thou wilt not find one.
79. My son, it is better thy possessions should be stolen, than
that theft should be brought home against thee.
80. My son, to whomsoever God is bountiful, him do thou
honour. Shouldst thou behold thine elders, remove thy fur cap
and stand erect in their presence, and magnify them.
81. My son, against a mighty man and wealthy, rise not up in
94 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
rebellion, nor compete in wealth. An avaricious man’s eye nothing
will sate or fill, except dust.
82. My son, be not a matchmaker, for goods and wealth and
possessions are from God; and in case poverty supervene, they
curse him who intervened.
34. My son, send thou and do not enter thy friend’s house
and go out. Subsequently, having been sated, he hates thee.
85. My son, a dog which leaves his own master and follows
thee, take up a stone and hit him, so that he may not come after
thee.
86. My son, a man who uses righteousness and takes counsel
of a pure heart, is pleasing to God; and do thou dread shame, as
thou wouldst God.
87. My son, an evil purpose rising up in the heart is of the
old adversary. And submissiveness is the foundation of thine
actions and a rampart of thy faith.
89. My son, love rectitude and expel falsehood. Ever give
ear to God’s commandment, and fear not the old adversary. God’s
commandment to a good man is a rampart of rock.
90. My son, flee from a bad and false man because avarice
and all evil whatever is born of falsehood.
91. My son, love not judgment; whether thou overcomest or
dost not overcome thine adversary, be quick to fear the judgment
of God.
92. My son, whoever is upright in his heart is a luminous son;
and he that cherisheth a grudge in his heart, and loving anger,
conceals it, that man resembles the darkness of hell. But who-
ever 1s pure, open and forgiving, that man is merciful; but who-
soever 1s avaricious, were he even rich, he is still senseless.
93. My son, into a tavern enter not. Shouldst thou however
enter, stay not late there, because thou wilt lose thy wealth.
94, My son, speak not ill of thy companion, whether from far
or from near, because an evil word causes bitterness to spread, and
a quarrel arises among them.
95. My son, God hath ordained wine for the sake of merriment.
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 95
Nevertheless in an evil locality, in a worthless place, it is better
thou shouldst drink anything bad, than liquor.
95a. My son, such is a drunkard, as if an arrow should enter
within the nose (of the bow). It inflicts no wound on any other
person than on the man himself.
96. My son, a drunkard imagines as follows in his mind: I am
noble, and I am brave, and whatever I say, 1 say with shrewd force.
He knows not that, if he meets with any intelligent and brave man
whatever, he will quickly smite him, a fugitive from his arm, to the
ground and slay him.
97. Myson, if thou see thine enemy, that he is lying on the
ground, do thou be sorry, for the reason that thou wilt make a
friend for thyself. If thou wilt hit him, he will rise up and do
thee mischief.
98. My son, a man very drunk imagines that the earth is
going round near him. He knows not that his head is going
round ; because the earth is of all fruits the mother, and similarly,
but yet more, drink is mother of all evils. By brutalising man, it
abandons him to wickedness, and by making him poor, slays the
man and changes him and renders him like a wolf.
99. My son, avoid becoming surety for a man. If by any
chance thon become his security, be sure that thou shalt give him
thy garment. If perhaps thou givest not in time, they will
impound thy goods one by one.
100. My son, be not a liar. If they once find thee a liar, they
will reckon even thy true utterances to be false, and will not
believe thee ; but will pronounce thee to be a har in every case.
101. Again Khikar addressed to Nadan, his brother’s son the
lore of the wise.
Four things there are which increase the light of a man’s eye:
First he will look in some locality upon the flowers ;
Secondly with naked sole he will walk upon the turf;
Thirdly he will walk in running water ;
Fourthly he will behold travellers from afar.
103. Again there are four things that fatten a son of man;
96 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
firstly, the being clad; secondly, if he continually hear good words ;
thirdly, if he live in company with his own children and with his
wife; fourthly, should one hear an evil word, but refuse to
hear it.
105. Again, four things there are that for ever render a son
of man self-respecting: a good word: poverty practised: few words
spoken: and respect for a great personage.
106. Again there are four things which bring water (tears) to
thy face: firstly, if a man should be in love with a bad woman:
secondly, if he should be loquacious, and no one can speak with
him: thirdly, if a man interrupt in the middle the conversation of
honest people, and strike in and spoil it: fourthly, if one should
say: I know and speak falsely.
107. Again, as they ask the wise Khikar: what in the world
is most delightful? Khikar answered: shamefacedness, whosoever
is shamefaced, he is pleasant ; because every evil whatever springs
from idleness.
108. This was my teaching which I gave, all that I Khnkar
spake to my brother’s son Nadan. I knew not, however, that he set
my teaching at naught, and let it fall to the ground like dust
before him. He began to injure me to the king, and began to
destroy all my possessions, my purse, my means of livelihood,
murdering my slaves, and insulting my handmaids. Nay he even
assaulted my wife, Abestan by name, who had reared him as a
child and trained him up.
110. After his having done these things to me, I went to my
king, and notified to him Nadan’s wickedness. I also flogged him,
and drove him from my side, and said: Henceforth never shall my
property be thine.
111. Forthwith the wretch began to malign me to the king,
so much so that he influenced the king to issue an order saying :
Take ye Khikar, and behead him.
112. Those executioners then did not forget my salt and
bread. I prostrated myself and made supplication to them saying:
There is here by me a man like myself, and he has committed a
TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT 97
murderous deed. Do ye cut off his head instead of mine, but hide
me. JI shall be of use some day to my king.
113. So they hid Khikar and decapitated the man.
114. It was noised abroad to the king, that Khikar had been
beheaded ; and Assyria lapsed into great mourning.
115. Some of the magnates went and presented themselves
before King Pharaoh. And King Pharaoh heard that Khikar had
been beheaded.
116. He sent high ambassadors to King Senekarim saying:
Send me such a man as can well answer to whatever I may ask ;
and such a man, whoever he be, as shall show himself wise and
talented enough to construct for me whatever sort of buildings I
shall prescribe.
117. Senekarim the King called together his high officers and
published the document by trumpet. Said the King: Who can
give answer to this thing ?
118. They said: My king, no one could give answer to
this thing, except Nadan who was taught everything by
Khikar.
119. The King called Nadan and said: Can you find an
answer to this thing? Nadan answered, 1 cannot. Nay, if there
were a thousand like me, they could not find an answer to the
difficulties.
120. Thereupon the king missed Khikar with his own officers,
being afraid of King Pharaoh, lest with a mighty army the latter
should assail him.
121. And king Senekarim said: If anyone could resuscitate
Khikar for me, I would give him the half of my kingdom.
. 122. Abusmak by name, an officer, came forward and said:
Khikar as ever is alive. As he spoke, he went and fetched at
once Khikar and set him once more before the king; but Khikar
had contracted mighty filth (on his person).
123. The king gazed, and was greatly rejoiced, and said: This
is the blessed by God. For this day he has resuscitated Khikar
from death. Thereupon the ruler sent him away, saying: Go thou,
L, A, N
98 TRANSLATION OF OLD TURKISH TEXT
and wash, and get fat; and on the fortieth day thou shalt present
thyself before me.
124, As soon as, after forty days, I came to the side of the
king, he said: Your Highness, hast thou heard what embassy hath
come to me from King Pharaoh ?
125. I said: My king, I would fain go with my charm, and
adjust these matters. He went and would arrange everything,
quietly, if so be.
126. And he came with great rejoicing and great gifts from
Pharaoh the King to King Senekarim. He advanced to meet the
king with the magnates.
127. Again there came certain men who took to flight when
they heard that Khikar was alive.
128. Thereupon the king said: Whatsoever thou ask, I will
give thee.
129. He answered: My King, I ask of thee nothing so much
as that thou shouldst give me my brother’s son Nadan.
130. As soon as he gave me Nadan, I said to my slave: Bind
not; with all superfluity of speech, I would utter but one word,
and would flog my slave (or my slaves flog him).
131. Isaid: My son, my God has preserved me in my sinless-
ness, but thee He has exposed, according to thine iniquity.
132. God shall give judgment between us, between thee and
me.
133. In that moment he listened, and burst asunder; and I
said: My son, a good action being done begets good, and a bad
action done, begets evil.
134. And whoso for another digs, into his pit he falls himself.
135. Good is produced by good and evil is produced hy evil.
136. Let a child conduct himself in keeping with that day;
and he shall receive the blessing of his father and mother, and walk
in uprightness, Amen.
A FRAGMENT OF THE SYRIAC TEXT OF THE
LEGEND OF AHIKAR
(from Mus. Britt. Add. 7200 = §,)
...AND it was said to me, [There will be no son to thee]. And
I had much wealth; I wedded me sixty wives, and built me sixty
castles: and from none of these women had Jason. Then I built
me a great altar of incense and vowed a vow, and said, O Lord
God, give me a male child, that when I shall die he may cast
dust on my eyes. Thereupon there was heard by me this voice
saying, O Ahikar, vex not thyself overmuch; there is no son for
thee ; but behold Nadan thy sister’s son; make him thy son; so
that as he grows up, thou mayest be able to teach him everything.
Then when I heard this, I took Nadan my sister’s son, and he
became my son. And on this wise I was saying to him’:
1. Hear my teaching, my son Nadan; and come to my under-
standing, and be mindful of my words, according to the following
sayings: and thereupon Ahikar? began to teach Nadan his sister’s
son, and answered and said to him:
2. Myson, if thou hast heard a word, let it die in thy heart ;
and reveal it to no man; lest it should become a hot coal in thy
mouth, and burn thee; and thou shalt lay blemish on thy soul,
and shalt be hated on earth, and be angered against God’.
1 The account of the earlier years of Nadan’s bringing up is omitted; if indeed
it existed in the first form of the story.
2 The text is double; 4 copy which had the primitive ‘I Ahikar took my son’
having been compounded with one that had ‘Thereupon Ahikar.’ A comparison
with the Tobit-parallels shows that the second clause is « modification of the
first.
3 We should expect ‘And God shall be angry with thee.’
100 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
8. My son, do not tell all that thou seest, and do not disclose
all that thou hearest.
4. My son, do not loose a knot that is sealed; and do not seal
one which is loosed.
5. My son,sweeten thy tongue, and make savoury the opening
of thy mouth ; because the tail of the dog gives him bread, and his
mouth gets him blows.
6. My son, the eye of man is a fountain, and is not satisfied
with riches nntil [filled with dust].
7. [My son, if] thou lift up thine eyes [and behold a woman
bedizened] and beautified, covet her not in thy heart; for if thou
shouldest give her all [that thou hast, advantage]? in her thon wilt
not find; and thou wilt be guilty of sin before God.
8. My son, stand not in the house of those that are at stnfe :
because from a word there comes a quarrel, and from a quarrel is
stirred up vexation; and from vexedness springs murder’,
9. My son, if a house were built by loudness of voice, the ass
would build two houses in a single day: and if by sheer force
the plough was directed, the plough-share would never be worn
away® under the shoulder of the camel.
10. Better to remove stones with the wise man than to drink
wine with the fool.
11. My son, in the company of the wise thou wilt not be
depraved; and in the company of the depraved thou wilt not
become wise.
12. Myson, make a companion of the wise person, and thou
wilt become wise like him; and make not a companion of the
foolish person, lest thou be reckoned like him.
13. While there are shoes on thy feet, tread down the thorns
and make a path for thy sons and thy sons’ sons,
1 A slight correction has been made in the Syriac text.
2 Of. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, ‘My child, be not angry, for anger leads
to murder,’ which is a simpler and more archaic form of the same precept,
3 This difficult expression is replaced in 8, by the easier terms ‘ would never be
released.’ In either case the meaning is obscure. Quaere, ‘if brute force were
sufficient, the camel might go on ploughing by himself’?
FROM THE SYRIAC 101
14, My son, the rich man eats a snake, and they say, For
his medicine he ate it: the poor man eats it, and they say,
Because of his hunger he ate it.
15. My son, eat thy portion, and stretch not out thy hand
over that of thy neighbour.
16. My son, do not eat bread with a man that is shameless.
17. My son, if thou seest thine enemy fallen, do not mock at
him; lest he should rise up and repay thee.
18. My son, be not envious at the good fortune of thine
enemy; and do not rejoice at his misfortune.
19. My son, do not approach a woman who is hateful and
talkative, and one whose voice is high. For the beauty of a
woman is her good sense and the word of her mouth is her
adornment.
20. My son, if thine enemy meet thee with evil, meet thou
him with good.
21. My son, if thou seest a man who is stronger than thyself,
rise up before him.......
End of Fragment.
THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
FROM A SYRIAC MS. IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
(Cod. Add. 2020 = Sy)
AGAIN, by the divine power, I write the proverbs, to wit, the
story of Ahikar, sage and secretary of Sennacherib the king of
Assyria and Nineveh.
In the twentieth year of Sennacherib, son of Sarhadum, king
of Assyria and Nineveh, I, Ahikar, was the king’s secretary.
And it had been said to me when I was a boy, that no son will
be born to thee!: and the wealth that I had acquired was too vast
' Presumably, this was said by the astrologers.
102 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
to tell. Sixty wives had I wedded; and sixty castles did I build
them: and I had no son. Thereupon I, Ahikar, built me a great
altar, all of wood; and kindled fire upon it, and laid good meat
thereon, and thus I spake:
‘O Lord, my God; when I shall die and leave no son, what
will men say of me? they will say that this, then, is Ahikar
the just and good and God-serving: he is dead, and has left no
son to bury him, no! nor a danghter: and his possessions, as if
he were accursed, no man inherits. But I ask of thee, O God,
that I may have a male child; so that when I shall die, he may
cast dust on my eyes’: and this voice was heard by me, ‘O Ahikar,
wise scribe, all that thou hast asked of me I have given thee; but
as to my having left thee childless, let it suffice thee: perplex not
thyself: but behold! Nadan thy sister’s son: he shall be a son
unto thee: so that with the growth of his stature thou shalt be
able to teach him everything.’ And when I heard these things, I
was grieved again, and said, ‘Oh! Lord God! is it that thou wilt
give me as a son Nadan my sister’s son, so that when I die he
may throw dust on my eyes?’ And no further answer was re-
turned to me. And I obeyed the command and took to me fora
son, Nadan, my sister’s son: and becanse he was yet young, I
furnished him with eight wet-nurses: and I brought up my son on
honey, and made him lie on choice carpets, and clothed him in
fine linen and purple; and my son grew and shot up like a cedar,
and when my son was grown big, I taught him book-lore and
wisdom ; and when the king came from the place to which he had
gone, he called me and said to me, O Ahikar, the wise scribe
and master of my thoughts, when thou shalt wax old and die, who
is there to come after thee and to serve me like thyself?’ And I
answered and said to him, ‘O my lord the king, live for ever! I
have a son, wise like myself, and book-learned like myself, and
educated.’ And the king said to me, ‘Bring him and let me
see him. If he is able to stand before me, I will release
thee in peace, and thou shalt spend thy old age in honour,
until thon shalt end thy days.’ Then I took my son Nadan
FROM THE SYRIAC 103
and set him before the king, and when my lord the king saw
him, he said, ‘This day shall be a blessed day before God, so
that like as Ahikar walked! before my father Sarhadum, and
before me also, he shall be rewarded? and I will set his son in my
gate in his lifetime, and he shall depart his life [in peace]. There-
upon I, Ahikar, bowed down before the king and said, ‘ My lord
the king, live for ever! And like as I walked before thy father
and before thyself even until now, so do thou also extend thy
forbearance to the youthfulness of this my son, that thy grace
which was toward me may be found multiplied towards him.
Then when the king heard this, he gave me his right hand, and I,
Ahikar, bowed down before the king.
Nor did I cease from the instruction of my son, until I had
filled him with instruction as with bread and water. And on this
wise was I discoursing to him:
1, Hear, O my son Nadan, and come to the understanding of
me, and be mindful of my words, as the words of God®.
2. My son Nadan, if thou hast heard a word, let 1t die m thy
heart, and reveal it to no man; lest it become a hot coal in thy
mouth and burn thee, and thou lay a blemish on thy soul, and
be angered against God.
8. My son, do not tell all that thou hearest, and do not
disclose all that thou seest.
4. My son, do not loose a knot that 1s sealed, and do not seal
one that is loosed.
5. My son, lift not up thy eyes and look upon a woman that
is bedizened and painted; and do not covet her in thy heart; for
if thou shouldest give her all that is in thy hands, thou findest no
advantage in her; and thou wilt be guilty of sin against God.
6. My son, commit not adultery with the wife of thy neigh-
bour; lest others should commit adultery with thy wife.
1 Lit. ran.
2 Reading we FAD
8 Cf, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, c. iv. ‘Him that speaketh to thee the
word of God, thou shalt remember night and day, and thon shalt honour him as
the Lord.’
104 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
7. My son, be not in a hurry, like the almond tree whose
blossom is the first to appear, but whose fruit is the last to be
eaten; but be equal and sensible, hke the mulberry tree whose
blossom is the last to appear, but whose fruit is the first to be
eaten.
8. My son, cast down thine eyes, and lower thy voice, and look
from beneath thine eyelids; for if a house could be built by a high
voice, the ass would build two houses in one day: and if by sheer
force the plough was guided, its share would never be loosed from
the shoulder of the camel.
9. My son, it 1s better to remove stones with a wise man
than to drink wine with a fool.
10. My son, pour out thy wine on the graves of the righteous,
rather than drink it with evil men.
11. My son, with a wise man thou wilt not be depraved, and
with a depraved man thou wilt not become wise.
12. My son, associate with the wise man, and thou wilt become
wise like him; and associate not with a garrulous and talkative
man, lest thou be numbered with him.
18. My son, while thou hast shoes on thy feet, tread down
the thorns and make a path for thy sons and for thy sons’ sons.
14. My son, the rich man eats a snake, and they say, He
ate it for medicine. And the poor man eats it, and they say,
For his hunger he ate it.
15. My son, eat thy portion, and despise not thy neighbours.
16. My son, with a shameless man it is not fit even to eat’.
17. My son, envy not the prosperity of thy enemy; and
rejoice not at his adversity”.
18. My son, draw not near to a woman that is a whisperer,
nor to one that has a shrill voice.
19. My son, go not after the beauty of a woman: and lust
not after her in thy heart: because the beauty of a woman is her
good sense: and her adornment is the word of her mouth.
1 Cf, 1 Cor. v. 11, édv ris...9 mépvos...7@e Tovo’ry wydE guvEr Blew.
2 Of Prov, xxiv. 17, éav wéoy 6 éxOpds cov, ph éemcxapys abT¢.
FROM THE SYRIAC 105
20. My son, if thine enemy meet thee with evil, meet thou
him with wisdom}.
21. My son, the wicked falleth and riseth not; but the just
man is not moved, for God is with him.
22. My son, withhold not thy son from stripes; for the
beating of a boy is like manure to the garden, and like rope to an
ass [or any other beast,|? and like tether on the foot of an ass.
23. My son, subdue thy son while he is yet a boy, before
he wax stronger than thee and rebel against thee, and thou be
shamed in all his corrupt doing.
24. My son, get thee an ox that {is fat and] lies down, and
an ass that has good hoofs, but do not get thee a slave that is
runaway nor a maid that is thievish: lest they destroy all that
thou hast gotten.
25. My son, the words of a liar are like fat sparrows; and he
that is void of understanding eateth them.
26. My son, bring not upon thee the curses of thy father and
of thy mother, lest thou rejoice not in the blessings of thy
children.
27. My son, walk not in the way unarmed; because thou
knowest not when thy enemy shall come upon thee.
28. My son, even as a tree is fair in its branches and fruit,
and a bosky mountain in its trees, so is a man fair in his wife and
weans; and he that hath not brethren, nor wife nor weans, is
despised and contemptible before his enemies; and he is like unto
a tree by the roadside, from which every passer-by plucketh, and
every beast of the weald teareth down its leafage*.
29. My son, say not, ‘My lord is a fool, and Iam wise’; but
take hold of him in his faults and thou shalt obtain mercy.
30. My son, count not thyself to be wise, when others count
thee not to be wise.
1 He does not mean ‘overcome evil with good,’ which would be a sentiment
foreign to the action of the story, but ‘ get the better of him.’
2 The bracketed words are a gloss.
3 Of, Ps. exxvii. 5.
L, A. O
106 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
31. My son, lie not in thy speech before thy lord, lest thou be
convicted, and he shall say to thee, ‘Away from my sight!’
32. My son, let thy words be true, in order that thy lord may
say to thee, ‘Draw near me,’ and thou shalt live.
33. My son, im the day of thy calamity revile not God; lest
when He hear thee, He should be angered against thee.
34. My son, treat not thy slave better than his fellow; for
thou knowest not which of them thou wilt have need of at the
last.
35. My son, smite with stones the dog that has left his own
master and followed after thee.
36. Myson, the flock that makes many tracks becomes the
portion of the wolves.
37. My son, judge upright judgment in thy youth, in order
that in thy age thou mayest have honour.
38. My son, sweeten thy tongue and make savoury the
opening of thy mouth; for the tail of a dog wins him bread, and
his mouth gets him blows.
39. My son, suffer not thy neighbour to tread on thy foot,
lest he tread on thy neck.
40. My son, smite the [wise] man with wise word, that it
may be in his heart like a fever im summer; [but know] that if
thou smite the fool with many blows, he will not understand.
41. My son, send a wise man and give him no orders; but if
thou wilt send a fvol, go rather thyself and send him not.
42. My son, test thy son with bread and water, and then
thou canst leave in his hands thy possessions and thy wealth.
43. My son, withdraw at the first cup, and tarry not for
lickerish draughts!: lest there be to thee wounds in thy head.
44, My son, he whose hand is full is called wise and honour-
able; and he whose hand is scant is called foolish and abject.
45. My son, I have carried salt and removed lead; and I
1 Lit. ‘heats.’ But perhaps we should read eWSamMay3 wAsaxs (ef.
the 73rd proverb), and translate ‘tarry not for sweet unguents.’
FROM THE SYRIAC 107
have not seen anything heavier than that a man should pay back
a debt which he did not borrow?.
46. My son, I have carried iron and removed stones; and
they were not heavier on me than a man who settles in the house
of his father-in-law.
47. My son, teach hunger and thirst to thy son, that accord-
ing as his eye sees he may govern his house.
48. My son, better is he that is blind of eye than he that is
blind of heart; for the blind of eye straightway learneth the road
and walketh in it: but the blind of heart leaveth the right way
and goeth into the desert.
49. My son, better is a friend that 1s at hand than a brother
who is far away: and better is a good name than much beauty:
because a good name standeth for aye: but beauty wanes and
wastes away.
50. My son, death is better than life to a man that hath no
rest: and better is the voice of wailing in the ears of a fool than
music and joy”.
51. My son, better is a drumstick in thy hand than a wing [?]
in the pot of other people; and better 1s a sheep that 1s at hand
than a heifer that is far off; and better 1s poverty that gathers
than wealth that scatters; and better one sparrow in thy hand
than a thousand on the wing: and better is a woollen coat on thy
back than fine linen and silks on the backs of others.
52. My son, restrain a word in thy heart, and it shall be well
with thee; because when thou hast exchanged thy word, thou
hast lost thy friend.
53. My son, let not a word go forth from thy mouth, until
thou hast taken counsel within thy heart: because it is better
for a man to stumble in his heart than to stumble with his
tongue.
54. My son, if thou hear an evil matter, put it seven fathoms
deep underground.
1 Cf. Sirach xxii. 14,15. Prov. xxvii. 3.
2 Cf. Eccl. vii. 1, 2. Apparently the sentiments of Ecclesiastes are contradicted.
108 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
55. My son, tarry not where there is contention; for from
strife arises murder1.
56. My son, every one who does not judge nght judgment
angers God.
57. My son, remove? not from thy father’s friend, lest per-
chance thy friend come not near to thee.
58. My son, go not down into princes’ gardens, and draw not
near to princes’ daughters.
59. My son, aid thy fnend before the ruler, that thou mayest
find out how thou mayest help him from the lion.
60. My son, rejoice not over the enemy when he dieth.
61. My son, when thou seest a man who is stronger than
thyself, rise up before him.
62. My son, if the waters should stand up without earth,
and the sparrow fly without wings, and the raven became white as
snow, and the bitter become sweet as honey, then may the fool
become wise.
63. My son, if thou art a priest of God, be thou ware of Hin
and enter His presence in purity, and from His presence remove
not.
64, My son, him that God prospers do thou also honour.
65. My son, strive not® with a man in his day, and stand not
against a river in its flood’.
66. My son, the eye of man is like a fountain of water, and
it is not satisfied with riches until filled with dust.
67. My son, if thy will is to be wise, refrain thy tongue from
lying, and thy hand from theft, and thou shalt become wise.
68. My son, have no part in the espousal of a woman; for if
it shall go ill with her, she will curse thee ; and if it shall go well
with her, she will not remember thee.
1 Cf, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, ‘ Be not angry; for anger leads to murder :
nor contentious.’
2 Reading Pst wl. 3 Lit. judge not.
4 Of. Sirach iv. 26; the Syriac reading, ‘Stand not up against a fool’ may
perhaps be explained, not as suggested above by a confusion between 9M) and S35,
but by one between nbavi and mibaw.
FROM THE SYRIAC 109
69. My son, he that is elegant in his dress is elegant also
in his speech, and he that is contemptible in his dress is con-
temptible also in his speech.
70. My son, if thou shalt find a find before an idol, offer the
idol its share of it?.
71. My son, the hand that was satisfied and is now hungry
will not give, nor the hand that was hungry and is now
satisfied.
72. My son, let not thine eyes look upon a woman that is
beautiful; and be not inquisitive into beauty that does not belong
to thee: because many have perished through the beauty of
woman, and her love has been as a fire that burneth.
73. My son, let the wise man strike thee with many blows,
and let not the fool salve thee with sweet salve’.
74. My son, let not thy foot run after thy friend, lest he be
surfeited with thee and hate thee.
75. My son, put not a gold ring on thy finger, when thou
hast not [wealth]*; lest fools make mock of: thee.
This is the teaching which Ahikar taught to Nadan his sister’s
son.
But I, Ahikar, supposed that everything which I had been
teaching Nadan, he took hold of in his heart, and that he stood
in my stead in the king’s gate; and I knew not that Nadan
listened not to my words, but scattered them, as it were, to the
wind; and returned and said that my father Ahikar 1s grown old,
and stands at the door of his grave; and his intelligence has
withdrawn and his understanding 1s diminished; and my son
Nadan began [to ill-treat] my servants by beating them and
slaughtering them and destroying them ; and he showed no mercy
on my servants and my handmaidens though they were in-
dustrious and well-beloved and excellent; and my horses he slew
and my good mules he ham-strung. So when I beheld me that
1 This sentence cannot be of Christian or Moslem origin.
2 Cf. Ps. exli. 5, ‘Let the righteous smite me &c,’
$ Or ‘when it is not thine.’
110 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
my son Nadan was doing detestable things, I answered and said
to him, My son Nadan, touch not my property; my son, it is said
in the proverb, ‘What the hand did not acquire, the eye did not
spare. Moreover I showed to Sennacherib my lord all these
matters; and my lord spake on this wise, ‘As long as Ahikar
lives, no man shall have power over his wealth. Then when my
son Nadan saw his brother Nebuzardan standing in my house,
he was very irate and he spake on this wise; ‘My father Ahikar
is grown old and his wits have waned ; [and as for his wise words,
he despised them]?; hath he given his possessions to Nebuzardan
my brother, and hath he removed me from his house ?’
When I Ahikar heard these things, I said, Alas for thee! my
wisdom, that my son Nadan had made insipid ; and as for my wise
sayings, he has contemned them.
Now when my son Nadan heard thereof, he was angry and
went to the gate of the king, and devised evil in his heart; and
sat down and wrote two letters to two kings who were enemies
of Sennacherib my lord; one to Akhi, the son of Hamselim, king
of Persia and Elam, as follows: ‘From Ahikar the Secretary and
Great Seal of Sennacherib king of Assyria and Nineveh, greeting.
When this letter reaches thee, arise and come to Assyria to meet
me; and I will bring thee into Assyria, and thou shalt seize the
kingdom without war.’ And he wrote another letter, as follows:
‘To Pharaoh, king of Egypt, from Ahikar, Secretary and Great
Seal of the king of Assyria and Nineveh, greeting. When this
letter shall reach thee, arise and come to meet me at Eagles’ dale,
which lieth to the south, on the 25th day of the month Ab. And
I will bring thee into Nineveh without war and thou shalt seize
the kingdom.’ And he made these writings of his like to my own
handwriting; and he sealed them in the king’s palace, and went
his way-
And he wrote further another letter to me, as if from my lord
the king Sennacherib; and on this wise he wrote it:
1 Probably a repetition from three lines lower down.
FROM THE SYRIAC lil
‘From Sennacherib the King, to Ahikar, my Secretary and
Great Seal, greeting. When this letter reaches thee, gather all
thy forces together, to the rock that is called Sis: and come forth
from thence and come to meet me at Eagles’ dale, which lieth to
the south, on the 25th day of the month Ab. And when thou
seest me approaching to thee, array thy forces against me, like
a man that is ready for battle: for ambassadors of Pharaoh the
king of Egypt are come to me; that they may see what forces
I have.’
And my son Nadan sent this letter to me by the hands of
two of the king’s servants,
And thereupon my son Nadan took the letters that he had
written, as if he had actually found them; and he read them
before the king; and when my lord the king heard them, he
lamented and said, ‘O God, wherein have I sinned against Ahikar,
that he should do unto me on this fashion?’ And my son Nadan
answered and said to the king, ‘My lord, do not fret nor rage.
Arise and let us go to Hagles’ dale on the day that is written
by him in the letter. And if it be true, then all that thon
commandest shall be done.’
So my son Nadan took the king my lord, and they came to me
at Eagles’ dale; and they found me having with me great forces
that were gathered there. And when I saw the king, I put my
forces in array against him, as it was written in the letter. And
when the king saw it, he was much afraid.
Then my son Nadan answered and said to him: ‘Let it not
disturb thee, my lord the king. Return and come into thy
chamber? in peace: and I will bring Ahikar before thee.’
Then my lord the king returned to his house.
And my son Nadan came to me and said to me, ‘ All that thou
hast done, thou hast done finely: and much hath the king praised
thee; and he commands thee to dismiss thy forces that they may
go every man to his own place and his own district. And do thou
come to me thyself alone.’
1 Taking the word as equivalent of the Greek xorwva.
i THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
Thereupon I came before the king, and when he saw me, he
said unto me, ‘Art thou come, Ahikar, my Secretary and the
foster-child of Assyria and Nineveh, thou whom I caused to come
into honour? but thou hast turned back and taken the part of my
enemies, And he gave me those letters that were written in my
name, and were sealed with the seal of my own ring. And when
I read them, my tongue stammered and my limbs became faint :
and I sought for a single word from the words of wisdom and I
found me none. And my son Nadan answered and said to me,
‘Away with thee from the king’s sight, thou foolish old man: and,
give thy hands to bonds and thy feet to iron fetters.’
Then Sennacherib the king turned away his face from me,
and he talked with Nabusemakh1...... and said to him, ‘ Arise,
go slay Ahikar, and separate his head a hundred ells from his
body.’
Then I fell on my face on the ground and worshipped the
king, and I said, ‘ My lord the king, live forever. Seeing, my lord,
that it hath pleased thee to kill me, thy will be done. I know,
however, that I have not sinned against thee. But command
them, my lord the king, that they kill me at the door of my
house: and let them give my body to burial.’
And the king said to Nabusemakh’...... , ‘Go, kill Ahikar at
the door of his house, and give his body to burial.’ Thereupon I,
Ahikar, sent to Eshfagni my wife that she should bring forth from
the daughters of my tribe maids a thousand and one: and let them
put on raiment of mourning, and let them wail and lament and weep
over me. And let them come to meet me, and let them make a
funeral feast? over me before I die. And prepare thou bread and a
table and a banquet for Nabusemakh%...... and his Parthians that
are with him, and come to meet them, and receive them and bring
them into my house. And I too will come into the house as a
uest.
; 1 ¢Yabusemakh Meskin Kanti’ which I do not understand; the correction of
the first part of the name is obvious. Possibly it should be ‘Nabusumuskin my
colleague.’ Compare the form as given in the Aramaic papyrus and in the Arabic,
2 Ut supra. 3 Lit. a house of weeping. 4 Ut supra.
FROM THE SYRIAC 113
And Eshfagni my wife, for that she was exceeding wise,
understood all my message, and did whatsoever I had sent to
her to do; and she came forth to meet them, and she brought
them into my house: and they did eat bread, and with her own
hand she served them, until they fell asleep from drunkenness,
every man in his place.
Thereat I, Ahikar, entered and said to Nabusemakh!, ‘ Look
towards God, and remember the love that there was between us,
brother: and grieve not over my death: and remember that thee
also did Sarhadum the father of Sennacherib deliver to me
that I should slay thee, yet I slew thee not, because I was aware
that there was in thee no ground of offence; andI kept thee alive
until the king desired thee, and when I brought thee before him,
he gave me great gifts, and many presents did I carry off from
him. And do thou too, now, preserve me alive and recompense
me this kindness: and in order that the word come not abroad
that I was not killed and that the king may not quarrel with
thee, behold, I have in my prison-house a slave, Marzifan hight,
and he is due to die: clothe this slave in my raiment and rouse
up the Parthians against him and they will'slay him: and I shall
not die, because I have done no wrong.’
And when I spake thus, moreover Nabusemakh?...also was
sore grieved over me, and he took my raiments and clad in them
the slave that was in the prison-house. And he roused up the
Parthians, and they arose in the fumes’ of their wine, and they
slew him and removed his head a hundred ells from his corse,
and they gave over his body for burial.
Then went forth the report in Assyna and Nineveh, that
Ahikar the Secretary is killed. And Nabusemakh*...rose up, and
Kshfagni my wife, and they made for me a hiding-place under
ground; its breadth was three cubits and its height five cubits,
under the threshold of the door of my house. And they put bread
and water with me, and went and shewed to Sennacherib the king
1 Yabusemakh. 2 Ut supra. 3 Lit. taste.
4 Ut supra.
114 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
that Ahikar, the Secretary, was dead: and when the men heard it,
they wept; and the women disfigured! their faces and said: ‘ Alas
for thee! Ahikar the wise Secretary, thou fence of the breaches of
our country: for Jike thee there will never be any one to us.
Then Sennacherib the king called my son Nadan, and said to
him, ‘Go make a funeral feast? for thy father Ahikar, and then
return to me. And when Nadan my son came, no funeral feast
did he make for me, nor any remembrance at all; but gathered
him the vain and lewd folk, and set them down at my table, with
singing and with great joy; and my beloved servants and hand-
maidens he stripped and flogged without mercy. Nor had he any
reverence of my wife Eshfagni, but sought to do with her the way
of man with woman. And I, Abhikar, was cast into darkness in
the pit beneath. And I was hearing the voice of my bakers, cooks
and butlers as they wept and sobbed within my house.
And after a few days came Nabusemakh’...and opened [my
prison] over me* and comforted me; and set before me bread
and water; and I said to him, ‘When thou goest forth from me,
remember me before God, and say, O God, just and righteous,
and that showest grace upon the earth, hear the voice of thy
servant Ahikar®, and remember that he sacrificed to thee fatted
oxen like sucking lambs. And now he is cast into the darksome
pit where he seeth no light. And dost thou not save him that
crieth unto thee? O Lord, hear the voice of my colleague’,
[I pray thee].’
Now when Pharaoh, king of Egypt, heard that I, Ahikar, had
been slain, he was greatly rejoiced, and he wrote a letter to
Sennacherib on this wise:
‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to Sennacherib, king of Assyria and
Nineveh, greeting. I am planning to build a castle between
1 Lit. scratched. 2 Lit. a house of weeping.
3 Ut supra. 4 Lit. on my eyes.
5 Cf. Apoc. vi. 10, ‘ How long, O Lord, holy and true, &c.’
° This trifling but necessary emendation confirms our interpretation (vide supra)
of Meskin Kenothi.
FROM THE SYRIAC A
heaven and earth, wherefore seek out and send me from thy king-
dom a man who is a skilled architect, that he may give me reply
concerning all that I shall ask him. And when thou shalt send
me such a man, I will collect and send thee the revenue of Egypt
for three years: and if thou send me not a man who shall give me
reply concerning all that I ask him, then do thou collect and send
me the tribute of Assyria and Nineveh for three years, by the
hands of these ambassadors that come to thee.’
And when this letter was read before the king, he cried out to
all the nobles and franklins of his kingdom, and said unto them:
‘Which of you will go to Egypt to give reply to the king concern-
ing all that he shall ask him? And he shall build him the castle
that he planneth, and bring back the three years’ tribute of Egypt
and come hither.’
And when the nobles heard this, they answered and said unto
the king; ‘My lord the king, thou knowest that not only in the
years of thy reign, but also in the years of thy father Sarhadum,
Ahikar the Secretary was in the habit of resolving questions like
these. And now, also, behold his son Nadan, he is instructed in
his father’s book-lore and wisdom.’ And when my son Nadan heard
these things, he cried out before the king and said; ‘The gods
themselves cannot do things like these; let men alone’.
And when the king heard these words, he was much perturbed,
and he descended from his throne and sat on the ground, and
spake thus?; ‘Alas for thee! Ahikar the wise, that I destroyed
thee for the words of a boy. Who will give thee to me for such a
time as this? JI would give him thy weight in gold.’
And when Nabusemakh:...heard these words, he fell down
before the king and said to him: ‘He who has contemned the
commandment of his lord, is guilty of death; and I, my lord, have
contemned the command of thy kingship. Command, therefore,
1 Cf. Dan. ii. 11.
2 Of, Ezek. xxvi. 16, cat xaraPjoovra: drd Tay Opdvuv adréiv wdyres ol dpxovTEs...
eri thy yiv kaGedoovrat...xal crevdtovow éml ce* xal Mppovrar éwl ce Opfvov xal épodaly
TOt....
3 Ut supra.
116 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
that they crucify me. For Ahikar, whom thou didst command me
to slay, is yet alive.’
And when the king heard these words, he answered and said,
‘Speak on, speak on, Nabusemakh’, speak on, thou good and
clever man, unskilled in evil. If it 1s indeed as thou sayest, and
thou show me Ahikar alive, then I will give thee presents of silver,
a hundred talents in weight, and of purple, fifty talents in value?
And Nabusemakh® answered and said, ‘Swear to me, my lord
the king, that, if there be not found before thee other sins of mine,
the sin shall not be remembered against me.’ And the king gave
him his right hand on this matter. And forthwith the king
mounted his chariot, and came unto me in haste, and opened [my
prison] over me, and I ascended and came and fell before the king ;
the hair of my head had grown down on my shoulders, and my
beard reached my breast; and my body was foul with the dust,
and my nails were grown long like eagles’‘,
And when the king saw me, he wept and was ashamed to
talk with me, and in great grief he said to me, ‘It was not I that
sinned against thee, Ahikar; but thy son whom thou broughtest
up, he it was that sinned against thee.’ Thereupon I answered and
said to him, ‘Because I have seen thy face, my lord, no evil is in
my mind. And the king said to me, ‘Go to thy house, Ahikar,
and shave off thy hair, and wash thy body, and recover thy strength’
forty days; and after that come to me.
Therefore I went to my house, and I was in my house about
thirty days, and when I had recovered ®, I came to the king, and the
king answered and said to me: ‘Hast thou seen, Ahikar, what a
letter Pharaoh, king of Egypt, has written me?’ And I answered
and said, ‘ My lord the king, let there be no trouble to thee over this
affair. I will go to Egypt and build the king a castle: and I will
make him answer concerning all that he may ask me: and I will
bring back with me the three years’ tribute of Egypt.’ And when
the king heard these things he rejoiced with a great joy: and he gave
1 Cod. Yabusemakh. ” Dan. v.16. % Cod. Yabusemakh. 4 Dan. iv. 33,
6 Lit. let thy soul come into thee. 6 Lit. my soul was in order upon me.
FROM THE SYRIAC 117
me gifts: and as for Nabusemakh’...he set him at the head of all.
And after this I wrote a letter to Eshfagni my wife as follows:
‘When this letter reaches thee, command my huntsmen that
they catch me two young eagles: and command the workers in
flax, that: they make me hempen ropes; the length of each one
of them shall be a thousand ells, and their thickness that of
one’s little finger. And bid the carpenters to make me cages for
the young eagles: and deliver over Ubael and Tabshelim, the two
boys, who do not yet know how to talk, and let them teach them
to say on this wise: “ Give the builders mud, mortar, tiles, bricks,
for they are idle.” ’
And Eshfagni my wife did all that I commissioned her: then
I said to the king: ‘Command, my lord, and send me that I go to
Egypt. And when the kmg commanded me to go, I took mea
force of soldiers and went. And when we came to the first halting-
place, I let out the young eagles and bound the ropes to their feet
and made the boys ride on them; and they took them and went
up to a great height, and the boys cried out as they had been
taught, ‘Mud, mortar, tiles, bricks supply to the builders who are
idle” Then I pulled them in again. And when we came to Egypt,
I went to the king’s gate: and his nobles told the king, ‘There is
come the man whom the king of Assyria has sent.’ And the king
commanded and gave me a place to reside in; and on the following
day [ came in before him and worshipped him and enquired after
his health, And the king answered and said unto me, ‘ What is
thy name?’ And I said to him, ‘My name is Abikam: one of
the contemptible ants of the kingdom.’ And the king answered
and said to me, ‘Am I thus despised of thy lord, that he hath sent
me a despised ant of his kingdom? Go, Abikam, to thy lodging,
and come to me early in the morning. Then the king commanded
his nobles, ‘On the morrow clothe yourselves in red, and the king
dressed himself in fine linen, and sat on his throne. And he
commanded and I came into his presence, and he said to me, ‘To
what am I like, Abikam; and to what are my nobles like?’ And
1 Ut supra. 2 Lit. asked after his peace.
118 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
I answered and said to him, ‘ My lord the king, thou art like unto
Bel, and thy nobles are like unto his priests. And again he said
to me, ‘Go to thy lodging, and come to me on the morrow.’ And
the king commanded his nobles, ‘On the morrow clothe yourselves
in robes of white linen,’ and the king himself put on white and
sat on his throne. And he commanded and I came into his
presence: and he said to me, ‘To what am I hke, Abikam, and
to what are my nobles like?’ And I said to him, ‘ My lord the
king, thou art like to the sun, and thy nobles to his rays. And
again he said to me, ‘Get thee to thy lodging, and come to me
to-morrow. And again the king commanded his nobles, ‘On the
morrow clothe yourselves in black,’ and the king put on crimson.
And he commanded, and I came into his presence, and he said to
me, ‘To what am I like, Abikam ; and to what are my nobles like ?’
And I said to him, ‘My lord the king, thou art like to the moon,
and thy nobles to the stars.’ And again he said to me, ‘Go to thy
house: and come to me to-morrow.’ And the king commanded his
nobles, ‘On the morrow dress in diverse and varied colours, and let
the doors of the palace! be covered with red hangings.’ And the
king himself was robed in fine needlework’. And he commanded
and J came into his presence: and he said to me, ‘ To what am I
like, Abikam ? and my nobles, to what are they like?’ And I said
to him, ‘ My lord the king, thou art like to the month Nisan, and
thy nobles to its flowers.’ Then the king said to me, ‘The first
time thou didst compare me to Bel, and my nobles to his priests.
The second time thou hast compared me to the sun, and my nobles
to its rays. The third time thou hast compared me to the moon,
and my nobles to the stars. And the fourth time thou hast
likened me to Nisan, and my nobles to the flowers thereof. And
now tell me, Abikam, to what is thy lord like?’ And I answered
and said to him, ‘Be it far from me, my lord the king, that J should
1 Tit. temple: but as in Daniel, it means palace; cf. Dan. iv. 4, ‘I Nebu-
chadnezzar was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace bon2’;
Dan. iv. 18, ‘Then the king went to his palace FID'N.! Cf. also 1 Reg. xxi. 1;
2 Reg. xx. 18 &e.
2 «Dressed in tapestry.’
FROM THE SYRIAC 119
make mention of my lord Sennacherib, whilst thou art seated. My
lord Sennacherib is like [the God of Heaven] and his nobles to
the lightnings that are in the clouds: for when he wills, he fashions
the rain and the dew [and] the hail; and if he thunders, he re-
strains the sun from rising, and its rays from being seen; and he
will restrain Bel from coming in and from going forth in the street,
and his nobles from being seen; and he will hinder the moon from
rising and the stars from appearing. And when the king heard
these things he was exceeding wroth, and said to me, ‘ By the life
of thy lord, I adjure thee tell me what is thy name?’ And I
answered and said to him, ‘I am Ahikar the Secretary and Great
Seal of Sennacherib king of Assyria and Nineveh.’ And the king
said to me, ‘ Did I not certainly hear that thy lord had killed thee ?’
And I said to him, ‘I am yet alive, my lord the king: and God
saved me from something which my hands did not.’ And the king
said to me, ‘Go, Ahikar, to thy house, and come to me to-morrow,
and tell me a word which I never heard nor any one of my nobles;
and which was never heard in the city of my kingdom.’
Then I sat down and meditated in my heart and wrote a
letter as follows:
‘From Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to Sennacherib, king of
Assyria and Nineveh, greeting.
‘Kings have need of kings and brethren of brethren: and at
this time my gifts are become scant, because silver is scarce in my
treasury: command, therefore, to send me from thy treasury
900 talents of silver, and in a little while I will return them to
their place.’
This letter, then, I folded and held it mn my hands: and the
king commanded and I came into his presence, and I said to him,
1 An erasure has been made of two words, and these are now illegible.
Perhaps the original text was ‘the God of Heaven,’ which was erased to make way
for ‘the idol Bel,’ but this correction was a stupid one, seeing that Pharaoh has
himself been compared to the great God Bel; hence perhaps a final erasure. The
Arabic has ‘my lord is the God of Heaven,’ which is sufficiently audacious to
invite correction. [Mrs Lewis has, by the use of reagent, brought up traces of
‘our God Bel.’]
120 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
‘Perhaps in this letter there is a word that was never heard by
thee.’ And when I read it before the king and before his nobles,
they cried out, as they were ordered by the king to do, and said,
‘This has heen heard by all of us, and it is so... Whereupon I
said to them, ‘ Behold, [in the case] there is a debt of 900 talents
from Egypt to Assyria. And when the king heard this, he
marvelled. Then he said to me, ‘1 am planning to build a castle
between earth and heaven. Its height from the earth shall be
one thousand fathoms. Then I brought out the young eagles
and bound the ropes to their feet, and set the boys on their
backs; and they were saying, ‘Provide mud, mortar; [foreman,
mix] tiles and bricks for the builders, because they are idle.’
And when the king saw it, he was confounded. Then J,
Ahikar, took a switch and beat the king’s nobles, till they all
took to flight. Then the king was indignant with me, and said
to me, ‘Thou art gone clean mad, Ahikar: who is able to carry
up anything to these boys?’ And I said to him, ‘ Concerning the
affairs of Sennacherib my lord, say ye nothing; for if he had been
at hand, he would have built a couple of castles in one day. And
the king said to me, ‘Have done with the castle, Ahikar, and go
to thy lodging; and in the morning come to me.’ And when it
was morning, I came into his presence, and he said to me,
‘Explain to me, Ahikar, the following matter. The horse of thy
lord neighs in Assyria, and our mares hear his voice here, and their
foals miscarry. Then I went forth from the king’s presence, and
commanded my servants to catch me a cat, and I whipped it in
the streets of the city; and when the Egyptians saw it, they went
and told the king that Ahikar had lifted himself! up agamst our
people and makes mock of us. ‘For he has caught a cat and
whips it in the streets of our city. And the king sent for me
and called me; and I came into his presence. And he said to me,
‘In what way art thou insultmg us?’ and I answered and said to
him, ‘This cat has seriously damaged me in no slight matter;
for a cock had been entrusted to me by my lord, whose voice was
1 has acted wickedly (?)
FROM THE SYRIAC 121
extremely beautiful, and by the time that he crowed I understood
that my lord wished for me, and I went to the gate of my lord.
And in this past night this cat went to Assyria and tore off the
head of this cock of mine and returned.’ And the king answered
and said to me, ‘As far as I can see, Ahikar, since thou art grown
old thou art become stark mad. For it is 360 parasangs from
here to Assyria; and how canst thou say that in a single night
this cat went and cut off the head of the cock and came back ?’
Then I said to him, ‘And if it is 360 parasangs from Egypt to
Assyria, how do thy mares in this place hear the voice of the
horse of my lord, and their foals miscarry?’ And when the king
heard this, he was sore vexed, and he said to me, ‘ Ahikar, expound
to me this riddle: A pillar has on its head twelve cedars; in every
cedar there are thirty wheels, and in every wheel two cables, one
white and one black.’ And I answered and said to him, ‘ My lord
the king, the ox-herds in our country understand this riddle that
thou tellest. The pillar of which thou hast spoken to me is the
year: the twelve cedars are the twelve months of the year; the
thirty wheels are the thirty days of the month; the two cables,
one white and one black, are the day and the night.’
Again he said to me, ‘Twine me five cables from the sand of
the river. And I said to him, ‘My lord the king, bid them bring
me from thy treasury one rope of sand, and | will make one to
match it.’ Then he said to me, ‘Unless thou do this, I will not
give thee the Egyptian tribute. Thereupon I sat down and
calculated in my heart how I should doit. And I went out from
the king’s palace! and bored five holes in the eastern wall of the
palace. And when the sun entered the holes I scattered sand in
them, and the sun’s path? began to appear as if [the sand] were
twined in the holes. Then I said to the king; ‘My lord, bid
them take up these, and I will weave you others in their stead.’
And when the king and his nobles saw it, they were amazed.
And again the king commanded to bring me an upper mill-
stone that was broken: and he said to me, ‘ Ahikar, sew up for us
1 Lit. temple, ut supra. 2 Lit. furrow.
122 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
this broken millstone.” Then I went and brought a nether’ mill-
stone, and cast it down before the king and said to him, ‘My
lord the king, since I am a stranger here, and have not the
tools of my craft with me, bid the cobblers cut me strips (?) from
this lower millstone which is the fellow of the upper millstone;
and forthwith I will sew it together. And when the king heard
it, he laughed and said, ‘‘The day in which Ahikar was born shall
be blessed before the God of Egypt; and since I have seen thee
alive, I will make it a great day and a feast. Then he gave me
the revenue of Egypt for three years, and straightway I returned
and came to my lord the king Sennacherib: and he came forth to
meet me and received me. And he made it a great day and set
me at the head of his household: and he said to me, ‘Ask what
thou wilt, Ahikar’; and I worshipped the king and said, ‘ What-
ever thou willest to give me, bestow it upon Nabusemakh...?;
because he gave me my life; and for myself, my lord, bid them
give me my son Nadan, that I may teach him a further lesson.
For he has forgotten my former teaching.’ And the king com-
manded and gave me my son Nadan; and the king said to me,
‘Go thy way, Ahikar, and work thy will on thy son Nadan; for
no man shall rescue his body from thy hands.’ Thereupon I took
Nadan my son, and brought him to my house; and I bound him
with iron chains whose weight was twenty talents, and I fastened
the chains in rings, and I fastened collars on his neck ; and I struck
him one thousand blows on the shoulders and a thousand and one
on his loins*; and I put him in the porch of the door of my palace,
and gave him bread by weight and water by measure. And I
delivered him to my boy Nabuel to guard, and told my boy, ‘ Wnte
down in a tablet whatever I say to my son Nadan, when I go in or
come out.’ And I answered and said to my son Nadan as follows:
My son, he who does not hear with his ears, they make him
hear with the nape of his neck.
' Lit. the mortar of a millstone,
2 Ut supra.
3 Cf. the punishment of the disobedient servant in the Gospel, dapihoerat woddas.
FROM THE SYRIAC 123
My son Nadan answered and said to me, Wherefore art thou
so angry against thy son ?
T answered and said to him, My son, I set thee on the throne
of honour; and thou hast cast me down from my throne. And
as for me, my righteousness! has saved me.
Thou hast been to me, my son, like a scorpion, which strikes
at a rock. And the rock said to it, ‘Thou hast struck at an
unconcerned heart.’ And it struck at a needle, and they say to it,
‘Thou hast struck at a sting worse than thy own.’
My son, thou hast been to me like a gazelle that was standing
over a sumach-tree and eating it. And the sumach-tree said to
it, ‘Why eatest thou me, seeing that they tan thy skin with me?’
And the gazelle said, ‘I eat thee in my life, and when I am dead
they will pluck thee up by thy roots?’
My son, thou hast been to me like the man that threw a stone
at the heaven, and it did not reach the heaven; but he incurred
sin against God.
My son, thou hast been like the man who saw his companion
shivering from cold, and took a pitcher of water and threw it over
him.
My son, not when thou hadst killed me, wouldst thon have
been able to stand in my place; for be well aware, my son, that
even if the tail of the swine should grow to seven ells, he would
never take the place of the horse: and even if his hair should
become soft and woolly, he would never ride on the back of a free
man’.
My son, I said that thou shouldst be in my place; and thou
shouldst acquire my house and my wealth, and inherit them.
But God was not pleased therewith and has not heard thy voice.
My son, thou hast been to me as the lion that came upon an
ass in the morning of the day and said to him, ‘ Welcome, my lord
1 In the primitive sense of ‘ almsgiving *?
2 Apparently the point of the story is missed, which is that the sumach-tree
has its revenge on the gazelle; ‘thy skin shall be dyed with my roots presently.’
3 We should expect ‘the free man would never ride on his back.’
124 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
Kyrios.. But the ass said to him, ‘May the same welcome that
thou givest me be the portion of him that tied me up last night;
and did not make my halter fast, so that I had not seen thy face.’
My son, a snare was set? upon a dunghill, and there came a
sparrow and looked at it and said, ‘ What doest thou here?’ And
the snare said, ‘I am praying to God.’ The sparrow said, ‘ And
what is that in thy mouth?’ The snare said, ‘ Bread for guests,’
Then the sparrow drew near and took it, and the snare caught
him by the neck. And the sparrow said, as he was being shaken,
‘If this is thy bread for guests, may the God to whom thou
prayest never listen to thy voice.’
My son, thou hast been to me as an ox that was bound with a
lion; and the lion turned and crushed him.
My son, thou hast been to me like the weevil that is in the
corn, which destroys kings’ granaries, and 1s itself of no account.
My son, thou hast been to me like the pot, to which they
made golden handles?, but its bottom was not cleansed from
blackness.
My son, thou hast been to me like a husbandman that sowed
a field with twenty measures of barley; and when he reaped it,
it made him twenty measures. And he said to it: ‘What I
scattered, I have gathered, but thou art shamed with thine evil
name, in that thou hast made a bushel into a bushel?: and JI,
[how] am I to live?
My son, thou hast been to me like the....bird that could
not save himself from death, and by his voice slaughtered his
companions’.
My son, thou hast been to me like the buck that led his
companions into the slaughter house; and yet he did not save his
own life.
1 A Syriac play of words between wi .e= disposuit laqueos and wl a
which follows.
2 Lit. ears. 3 Cf. Matt. xxv. 24—27.
4 Adding ~J£1Asr to text.
5 Reading swalm
FROM THE SYRIAC 125
My son, thou hast been to me like the dog that came to the
potters’ oven to warm himself, and after he was warm rose up to
bark at them.
My son, thou hast been to me like the swine that had been
to the baths, and when it.saw a muddy ditch, went down and
washed in it, and cried to his companions, ‘Come and wash.’
My son, my finger is upon thy mouth, and thy finger is upon
my eyes. Why have I brought thee up, thou jackal, that thy
eyes look thus upon apples ?
My son, the dog that eats of his hunting will become the
portion of wolves: and the hand that is not industrious shall
be cut off from its shoulder: and the eye in which there is no
vision the raven shall pluck it out.
What good hast thou done me, my son, that J remembered
thee and that my soul had comfort in thee ?}
My son, if the gods steal, by whom shall they make them
swear? And a lion that steals a piece of land, how will he sit
down and eat it?
My son, I caused thee to behold the face of the king, and
brought thee to great honour: and thou hast chosen to do me evil.
My son, thou hast been to me like the tree that said to its
woodcutters, ‘If there had not been somewhat from me in your
hands, ye had not fallen upon me.’
My son, thou hast been to me like the young swallows which fell
out of their nest; and a cat caught them and said to them, ‘If it
had not been for me, great evil would have befallen you.’ They
answered and said to her, ‘Is that why thou hast put us in thy
mouth ?’
My son, thou hast been to me like the cat, to which they say,
‘Leave off thy thievish ways, and thou shalt go out from and come
in to the king’s palace, according to thy heart’s wish. And she
answered and said, ‘If I should have eyes of silver and ears of
gold, I will not leave off my thieving.’
1 We should have expected, ‘that I might remember thee and that my soul
might have comfort in thee.’
126 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
My son, thou hast been to me like a serpent that was mounted
on a thornbush and thrown into a river; and a wolf saw them and
said to them: ‘Bad rides on bad, and worse than either carries
them off. The serpent said to him, ‘If thou hadst been here,
thou shouldst have paid the reckoning for the she-goats and their
young ones.’
My son, I have seen a she-goat brought into the slaughter
house, and because its time was not yet come, it returned to its
place and saw its children and its children’s children.
My son, I have seen colts that have become slayers of their
mothers.
My son, I fed thee with every pleasant meat: and thou, my
son, hast fed me with bread of ashes!, and I was not satisfied
therewith.
My son, I salved thee with sweet salves, and thou, my son,
hast fouled my body with dust.
My son, I trained up thy stature like a cedar, but thou hast
humbled me in my life, and hast made me drunken with thy
wickedness.
My son, I raised thee like a tower and said, ‘If the enemy
should come upon me, I will go up and dwell in thee’: and thou,
when thou sawest my enemy, didst bow before him.
My son, thou hast been to me like the mole that came up out of
the earth that it might get possession? of the sun, because he had
no eyes; and an eagle saw him and struck him and carried him off.
My son Nadan answered and said to me, ‘My father Ahikar,
such things be far from thee: do to me according to thy mercy:
for God also forgives the fault of man: and thou also, forgive me
this my folly: and I will tend thy horses and feed thy pigs which
are in thy house, and [I shall be called evil: but thou, devise not
evil against me.’
I answered and said to him, My son, thou hast been to me like
' Lit. dust.
2 it. receive. But perhaps the original was ‘that he might see the sun,
though he had no eyes.’
FROM THE SYRIAC 127
that palm tree that stood by a river, and cast all its fruit into the
river, and when its lord came to cut it down, it said to him, ‘ Let
me alone this year, and I will bring thee forth carobs.’ And its
lord said unto it, ‘Thou hast not been industrious in what is thine
own, and how wilt thou be industrious in what is not thine own?’
My son, they say to the wolf, ‘Why dost thou follow after the
sheep?’ He said to them, ‘Their dust is exceeding good for my
eyes.+ Again they brought him.into the school house: the master
said to him, ‘ Aleph, Beth’; the wolf said, ‘ Kid, Lamb.’
My son, I taught thee that there is a God: and thou risest
up against good servants, and beatest those that have not sinned ;
and like as God has kept me alive on account of my righteousness
so hath He destroyed thee for thy works.
My son, they set the head of the ass over a dish at the table,
and he rolled off and fell in the dust. And they say, ‘ He spites
himself; he does not receive honour.’
My son, thou hast verified the proverb, which is current : ‘ Call
him whom thou hast begotten, thy son, and him whom thou hast
purchased, thy slave.’
My son, the proverb is true that is current: ‘Take thy sister's
son under thy arm and dash him against a stone.’
But God is He that hath kept me alive, and He will judge
between us. _
Thereat Nadan swelled up like a bag and died. And to him
that doeth good, what is good shall be recompensed: and to him
that doeth evil, what is evil shall be rewarded. And he that
diggeth a pit for his neighbour, filleth it with his own stature.
And to God be glory, and His mercy be upon us. Amen.
The proverbs of Ahikar the sage and secretary of Sennacherib
king of Assyria and Nineveh are ended.
1 The Amir of Afghanistan quotes this saying in the first number of the
Monthly Review p. 38: ‘One of the poets says rightly: a lover seems to find
pleasure in the pursuit of his ambitions, as the dust that rises from the feet
of the flock is a salve to the eyes of the wolf pursuing the flock.’
J. R. OH.
AETHIOPIC FRAGMENTS OF THE SAYINGS OF
AHIKAR
THE following is the translation of the fifteen sayings of
Ahikar, published by Cornill in his Mashafa Faldsfa Tabibdn,
or Book of the Wise Philosophers. These sayings are taken from
two MSS., one at Frankfort and the other at Tiibingen. They
apparently come from an Arabic collection of ethical maxims,
and not from a complete story of Ahikar. We should have
inferred that the precepts were in separate circulation in Arabic,
from the title of a ms. in the Vatican described by Assemani
which is said to contain Hicart philosopht Mosulant praecepta.
Instruction of Haikar the Wise.
He spake as follows:
1. Hear, my son, and keep in remembrance my discourse, so
that thou rememberest God the High and the Mighty.
My son, if thou hearest a discourse, hide it in thy heart and
disclose it not to thy neighbour, that it become not to thee as a
coal and burn thy tongue, and bring derision upon thee and make
thee hateful to God.
2. My son, make fair thy discourse and thy behaviour; for
the wagging of a dog’s tail gives him bread, but his jaw brings
him stones.
3. My son, do not tarry with him, in whom there is strife:
for strife brings controversy: and strife gives for an inheritance
revengefulness and murder.
4. My son, if a house could be built by talk without action,
an ass would build two houses a day.
AETHIOPIC FRAGMENTS OF THE SAYINGS 129
5. My son, it is better to haul stones with a wise and under-
standing man, than to drink wine with a fool.
6. My son, as long as there are shoes on thy feet, tread down
the thorns, and level the way for thy children and thy children’s
children.
7. My son, if the rich man eats a snake, they say of him, ‘ He
seeks a medicine therein’; if, however, the poor man eats it, they
say of him, ‘It was from hunger.’
8. My son, if there come to thee a slenderer and poorer man
than thyself, rise up to receive him.
9. My son, the wicked falls and rises not again; but the good
man falls and rises immediately and remains in his condition.
10. My son, cease not to beat thy son; for the chastisement
of a child is good for it, even as dung makes the land good; and
as the land which is not rugged and on which there is grass
delights the cattle, so doth a well-brought up son delight his
father.
11. My son, keep thy son in curb, as long as he is small, that
he may not grow up and thou have no more control over him,
and be fain to blush over his corrupt behaviour.
12. A fair repute is better than a fair appearance; for the
fair repute abides for ever, but the fair appearance and form pass
away.
13. My son, it is better to stumble with the foot than with
the tongue; and bring no discourse out of thy mouth, before thou
hast entered into counsel with thine own self.
14. My son, if the course of water should turn backwards, and
if birds should fly without wings, and if the raven should become
white as snow, then may a fool become wise.
15. My son, if thou wilt be wise, refrain thy tongue from
lying and thy hands from stealing.
J. R. H.
f. 81b
f. 82a
THE STORY OF HAIQAR AND
NADAN
THE ARABIC VERSION
In the name of God the Creator, the Living One, the Source
of Reason, we hereby begin with the help of the Most High God!
and His best guidance, to write the story of Haigdr the Wise,
Vizier of Sennacherib the King, and of Nadan, sister's son to
Haigar the Sage.
There was a Vizier in the days of King Sennacherib, son of
Sarhadum, king of Assyria and Nineveh, a wise man named
Haigar, and he was vizier of the king Sennacherib. He had a fine
fortune and much goods, and he was skilful, wise, a philosopher,
[in] knowledge, [in] opinion and [in] government, and he had
married sixty women, and had built a castle for each of them. But
with it all he had no child by any of these women, who might be
his heir. And he was very sad on account of this, and one day he
assembled the astrologers and the learned men and the wizards
and explained to them his condition and the matter of his barren-
ness. And they said to him, “Go, sacrifice to the gods and
beseech them that perchance they may provide thee with a boy.”
And he did as they told him and offered sacrifices to the idols, and
besought them and implored them with request and entreaty.
And they answered him not one word. And he went away
sorrowful and dejected, departing with a pain at his heart. And
he returned, and implored the Most High God, and believed,
beseeching Him with a burning in his heart, saying, “O Most High
God, O Creator of the Heavens and of the earth, O Creator of all
created things! I beseech Thee to give me a boy, that I may be
1 Literally ‘‘God, may He be exalted!” passim,
HAIQAR AND NADAN FROM THE ARABIC 131
consoled by him, that he may be present at my death, that he may
close my eyes, and that he may bury me.” Then there came to
him a voice saying, “Inasmuch as thou hast relied first of all on
graven images, and hast offered sacrifices to them, for this reason
thou shalt remain childless thy life long. But take Nadan thy
sister’s son, and make him thy child and teach him thy learning
and thy good breeding, and at thy death he shall bury thee.” There-
upon he took Nadan his sister's son, who was a little suckling.
And he handed him over to eight wet-nurses, that they might
suckle him and bring him up. And they brought him up with
good food and gentle training and silken clothing, and purple
and crimson. And he was seated upon couches of silk. And
when Nadan grew big and walked, shooting up like a tall cedar,
he taught him good manners and writing and science and philo-
sophy. And after many days King Sennacherib looked at Haigar
and saw that he had grown very old, and moreover he said to him,
“O my honoured friend, the skilful, the trusty, the wise, the
governor, my secretary, my vizier, my Chancellort and director ;
verily thou art grown very old and weighted with years; and thy
departure from this world must be near. Tell me who shall have
a place in my service after thee.” And Haiqar said to him, “O
my lord, may thy head live for ever! There is Nadan my
sister's son, I have made him my child. And I have brought
him up and taught him my wisdom and my knowledge.” And
the king said to him, “O Haiqar! bring him to my presence,
that I may see him: and if I find him suitable, put him in thy
place; and thou shalt go thy way, to take a rest and to live the
remainder of thy life in sweet repose.” Then Haigar went and
presented Nadan his sister’s son. And he did homage and wished
him power and honour. And he looked at him and admired him
and rejoiced in him and said to Haigar: “Is this thy son, O
Haigar? I pray that God may preserve him. And as thou hast
served me and my father Sarhadum so may this boy of thine serve
me and fulfil my undertakings, my needs, and my business, so that
1 Literally ‘‘the sealer of my secrets,” passim.
f. 82b
f. 83a
f. 83b
132 HAIQAR AND NADAN
I may honour him and make him powerful for thy sake.” And
Haigar did obeisance to the king and said to him, “ May thy head
live, O my lord the king, for ever! I seek from thee that thou
mayest be patient’ with my boy Nadan and forgive his mistakes
that he may serve thee as it is fitting.” Then the king swore to
him that he would make him the greatest of his favourites, and
the most powerful of his friends, and that he should be with him
in all honour and respect. And he kissed his hands and bade him
farewell. And he took Nadan his sister’s son with him and seated
him in a parlour and set about teaching him night and day till he
had crammed him with wisdom and knowledge more than with
bread and water.
Thus he taught him, saying:
1. O my son! hear my speech and follow my advice and
remember what I say.
2. O my son! if thou hearest a word, let it die in thy heart,
and reveal it not to another, lest it become a live coal and burn
thy tongue and cause a pain in thy body, and thou gain a reproach,
and art shamed before God and man.
3. Omy son! if thou hast heard a report, spread it not; and
if thou hast seen something, tell it not.
4. QO my son! make thy eloquence easy to the listener, and be
not hasty to return an answer.
5. Omy son! when thou hast heard anything, hide it not.
6. O my son! loose not a sealed knot, nor untie it, and seal
not a loosened knot.
7. O my son! covet not outward beauty, for it wanes and
passes away, but an honourable remembrance lasts for aye.
8. O my son! let not a silly woman deceive thee with her
speech, lest thou die the most miserable of deaths, and she entangle
thee in the net till thou art ensnared.
9. O my son! desire not a woman bedizened with dress and
1 It is strange to find a great scholar like Burton taking this idiom literally
and translating ‘‘extend the wings of thy spirit.” It is either a Syriacism or a
suggestion of M7 IN,
FROM THE ARABIC 133
with ointments, who is despicable and silly in her soul. Woe to
thee if thou bestow on her anything that is thine, or commit to her
what is in thine hand and she entice thee into sin, and God be
wroth with thee.
10. O myson! be not like the almond-tree, for it brings forth
leaves before all the trees, and edible fruit after them all, but be
like the mulberry-tree, which brings forth edible fruit before all
the trees, and leaves after them all.
11. Omy son! bend thy head low down, and soften thy voice,
and be courteous, and walk in the straight path, and be not foolish.
And raise not thy voice when thou laughest, [for if 1t were by a
loud voice that a house was built, the ass would build many houses
every day ;] (and if it were by dint of strength that the plough
were driven, the plough would never be removed from under the
shoulders of the camels.)
12. O my son! the removing of stones with a wise man is
better than the drinking of wine with a sorry man.
13. O my son! pour out thy wine on the tombs of the just,
and drink not with ignorant, contemptible people.
14. O my son! cleave to wise men who fear God and be like
them, and go not near the ignorant, lest thou become like him, and
learn his ways.
15. O my son! when thou hast got thee a comrade or a friend,
try him, and afterwards make him a comrade and a friend; and do
not praise him without a trial; and do not spoil thy speech with a
man who lacks wisdom.
16. O my son! while a shoe stays on thy foot, walk with 16 on
the thorns, and make a road for thy son, and for thy household and
thy children, and make thy ship taut before she goes on the sea
and its waves and sinks and cannot be saved.
17. [O myson! if the rich man eat a snake, they say “It is by
his wisdom,” and if a poor man eat it, the people say “From
his hunger.”]
18. Omyson! be content with thy daily bread and thy goods,
and covet not what is another's.
Salhani
p. 4
f. 84a
B.M. ms.
f. 1854
Salhani
p. 4
f. 84b
f. 85a
134 HAIQAR AND NADAN
19. O myson! be not neighbour to the fool, and eat not bread
with him, and rejoice not in the calamities of thy neighbours. If
thine enemy wrong thee, shew him kindness.
20. O my son! a man who fears God do thou fear him and
honour him.
21. QO my son! the ignorant man falls and stumbles, and the
wise man, even if he stumbles, he is not shaken, and even if he
falls he gets up quickly, and if he is sick, he can take care of
his life. But as for the ignorant, stupid man, for his disease there
is no drug.
22. O my son! if a man approach thee who is inferior to
thyself, go forward to meet him, and remain standing, and if he
cannot recompense thee, his Lord will recompense thee for him.
23. Omyson! spare not to beat thy son, for the drubbing of thy
son is like manure to the garden, and like tying the mouth of a purse,
and like the tethering of beasts, and like the bolting of the door.
24. O my son! restrain thy son from wickedness, and teach
him manners before he rebels against thee and brings thee into
contempt amongst the people and thou hang thy head in the
streets and the assemblies and thou be punished for the evil of his
wicked deeds.
25. O my son! get thee a fat ox with a foreskin, and an ass
great with its hoofs, and get not an ox with large horns, nor make
friends with a tricky man, nor get a quarrelsome slave, nor a thievish
handmaid, for everything which thou committest to them they
will ruin.
26. O myson! let not thy parents curse thee, and the Lord be
pleased with them; for it hath been said, “He who despiseth his
father or his mother let him die the death (I mean the death of
sin); and he who honoureth his parents shall prolong his days and
his life and shall see all that is good.”
27. O my son! walk not on the road without weapons, for
thou knowest not when the foe may meet thee, so that thou
mayest be ready for him.
28. O my son! be not like a bare, leafless tree that doth not
FROM THE ARABIC 135
grow, but be like a tree covered with its leaves and its boughs;
for the man who has neither wife nor children is a disgrace in the
world and is hated by them, like a leafless and fruitless tree.
29. O my son! be like a fruitful tree on the roadside, whose
fruit is eaten by all who pass by, and the beasts of the desert rest
under its shade and eat of its leaves.
30. Omy son! every sheep that wanders from its path and
its companions becomes food for the wolf.
31. O my son! say not “My Lord is a fool and I am wise,”
and relate not the speech of ignorance and folly, lest thou be
despised by him.
32. Omyson! be not one of those servants, to whom their
lords say, “Get away from us,” but be one of those to whom they
say, “ Approach and come near to us.”
32 (O my son! caress not thy slave in the presence of his
companion, for thou knowest not which of them shall be of most
value to thee in the end.)
34. O my son! be not afraid of thy Lord who created thee,
lest He be silent to thee.
35. O my son! make thy speech fair and sweeten thy tongue
and permit not thy companion to tread on thy foot, Jest he tread
another time on thy breast.
36. O my son! if thou beat a wise man with a word of wisdom,
it will lurk in his breast like a subtle sense of shame; but if thou
drub the ignorant with a stick he will neither understand nor hear.
37. O my son! if thou send a wise man for thy needs, do not
give him many orders, for he will do thy business as thou desirest;
and if thou send a fool, do not order him, but go thyself and do thy
business, for if thou order him, he will not do what thou desirest.
If they send thee on business, hasten to fulfil 1t quickly.
38. O my son! make not an enemy of a man stronger than
thyself, for he will take thy measure’, and his revenge on thee.
39. O my son! make trial of thy son, and of thy servant,
before thou committest thy belongings to them, lest they make
’ Literally ‘“‘he will weigh thee.”
f. 85b
B.M. us.
f. 187b
f. 86a
f. 68b
B.M. ms.
f. 189 a
136 HAIQAR AND NADAN
away with them; for he who hath a full hand is called wise, even
if he be stupid and ignorant, and he who hath an empty hand is
called poor, ignorant, even if he be the prince of sages.
40. O my son! I have eaten a colocynth, and swallowed aloes},
and I have found nothing more bitter than poverty and scarcity.
41. O my son! teach thy son frugahty and hunger, that he
may do well in the management of his household.
42. O my son! teach not to the ignorant the language of wise
men, for it will be burdensome to him.
43. O my son! display not thy condition to thy friend, lest
thou be despised by him.
44, © my son! the blindness of the heart is more grievous
than the blindness of the eyes, for the blindness of the eye may be
guided little by little, but the blindness of the heart is not guided,
and it leaves the straight path, and goes in a crooked way.
45. O my son! the stumbling of a man with his foot is better
than the stumbling of a man with his tongue.
46. O my son! a friend who is near is better than a more
excellent brother who is far away.
47. O my son! beauty fades but learning lasts, and the world
wanes and becomes vain, but a good name neither becomes vain
nor wanes. j
48. O my son! the man who hath no rest, his death were
better than his life; and the sound of weeping is better than the
sound of singing; for sorrow and weeping, if the fear of God be in
them, are better than the sound of singing and rejoicing.
49. (Omy child! the thigh of a frog in thy hand is better than
a goose in the pot of thy neighbour; and a sheep near thee is better
than an ox far away; and a sparrow in thy hand is better than a
thousand sparrows flying; and poverty which gathers 1s better
than the scattering of much provision; and a living fox is better
than a dead lion; and a pound of wool is better than a pound of
wealth, I mean of gold and silver; for the gold and the silver are
hidden and covered up in the earth, and are not seen; but the
1 Or ‘‘ myrrh,”
FROM THE ARABIC 137
wool stays in the markets and it is seen, and it is a beauty to him
who wears it.)
50. O my son! a small fortune is better than a scattered
fortune.
51. O my son! a living dog is better than a dead poor man.
52. O my son! a poor man who does right is better than a
rich man who is dead in sins.
53. O my son! keep a word in thy heart, and 1t shall be much
to thee, and beware lest thou reveal the secret of thy friend.
54. O my son! let not a word issue from thy mouth till thoti
hast taken counsel with thy heart. And stand not betwixt persons
quarrelling, because from a bad word there comes a quarrel, and
from a quarrel there comes war, and from war there comes fighting,
and thou wilt be forced to bear witness; but run from thence and
rest thyself.
55. O my son! withstand not a man stronger than thyself, but
get thee a patient spirit, and endurance and an upright conduct,
for there is nothing more excellent than that.
56. O my son! hate not thy first friend, for the second one
may not last.
57. O my son! visit the poor in his affliction, and speak of
him in the Sultan’s presence, and do thy diligence to save him
from the mouth of the lion.
58. O my son! rejoice not in the death of thine enemy, for
after a little while thou shalt be his neighbour, and him who
mocks thee do thou respect and honour and be beforehand with
him in greeting.
59. O my son! if water would stand still in heaven, and a
black crow become white, and myrrh grow sweet as honey, then
ignorant men and fools might understand and become wise.
60. O my son! if thou desire to be wise, restrain thy tongue
from lying, and thy hand from stealing, and thine eyes from
beholding evil; then thou wilt be called wise.
61. O my son! let the wise man beat thee with a rod, but let
not the fool anoint thee with sweet salve. Be humble in thy
youth and thou shalt be honoured in thine old age.
L. db g
f. 87a
B.M. ms.
f. 190 b
f. 87b
Salhani
p. 5
f. 88a
138 HAIQAR AND NADAN
62. O my son! withstand not a man in the days of his power,
nor a river in the days of its flood.
63. O my son! be not hasty in the wedding of a wife, for if it
turns out well, she will say, “ My lord, make provision for me” ; and
if it turns out ill, she will rate at him who was the cause of it.
64. (O my son! whosoever is elegant in his dress, he.is the
same in his speech; and he who has a mean appearance in his
dress, he also is the same in his speech.)
65. O my son! if thou hast committed a theft, make it known
to the Sultan, and give him a share of it, that thou mayest be
delivered from him, for otherwise thou wilt endure bitterness.
66. O my son! make a friend of the man whose hand is
satisfied and filled, and make no friend of the man whose hand is
closed and hungry.
There are four things in which neither the king nor his army
can be secure: oppression by the vizier, and bad government, and
perversion of the will, and tyranny over the subject; and four
things which cannot be hidden: the prudent, and the foolish, and
the rich, and the poor.
Thus spake Haigar, and when he had finished these injunctions
and proverbs to Nadan, his sister’s son, [he imagined that he
would] keep them all, and he knew not that instead of that he was
displaying to him weariness and contempt and mockery.
Thereafter Haigar sat still in his house and delivered over to
Nadan all his goods, and the slaves, and the handmaidens, and the
horses, and the cattle, and everything else that he had possessed
and gained; and the power of bidding and of forbidding re-
mained in the hand of Nadan; and Haiq4r sat at rest in his
house, and every now and then Haiy4r went and paid his respects
to the king, and returned home. Now when Nadan perceived that
the power of bidding and of forbidding was in his own hand, he
despised the position of Haig&r and scoffed at him, and set about
blaming him whenever he appeared, saying, “My uncle Haiqar 1s
in his dotage, and he knows nothing now”; and he began to beat
the slaves and the handmaidens, and to sell the horses and the
FROM THE ARABIC 139
camels and be spendthrift with all that his uncle Haigdr had
owned.
And when Haiqér saw that he had no compassion on his
servants nor on his household, he arose and chased him from his
house, and sent to inform the king that he had scattered his pos-
sessions and his provision.
And the king arose and called Nadan and said to him: “ Whilst
Haiqar remains in health, no one shall rule over his goods nor over
his household, nor over his possessions.” And the hand of Nadan
was lifted off from his uncle Haigér and from all his goods, and in
the meantime he went neither in nor out, nor did he greet him.
Thereupon Haigar repented him of his toil with Nadan, his
sister's son, and he continued to be very sorrowful. And Nadan
had a younger brother named Benizardan, so Haigdr took him
to himself in place of Nadan, and brought him up and honoured
him with the utmost honour. And he delivered over to him all
that he possessed, and made him governor of his house.
Now when Nadan perceived what had happened he was seized
with envy and jealousy, and he began to complain to every one
who questioned him, and to mock his uncle Haiq4r, saying: “ My
uncle has chased me from his house, and has preferred my brother
to me, but if the Most High God give me the power, I shall bring
upon him the misfortune? of being killed.” And Nadan continued
to meditate as to the stumbling-block he might contrive for him.
And after a while Nadan turned it over in his mind, and wrote
a letter to Achish, son of Shah the Wise, king of Persia, saying
thus:
“Peace and health and might and honour from Sennacherib
king of Assyria and Nineveh, and from his vizier and his secretary ,
Haig4r unto thee, O great king! Let there be peace between thee
and me. And when this letter reaches thee, if thou wilt arise
and go quickly to the plain of Nisrin?, and to Assyria and Nineveh,
1 Literally ‘‘ cast him into the misfortune.”’
2 Nisrin may either mean ‘‘the eagles,” or ‘‘the wild rose.” I prefer the
latter, because the usual plural of nasr is nustir or ansur.
{. 88b
{. 89a
f. 89b
140 HAIQAR AND NADAN
I will deliver up the kingdom to thee without war and without
battle-array.”
And he wrote also another letter in the name of Haiqar to
Pharaoh king of Egypt. “Let there be peace between thee and
me, O mighty king! If at the time of this letter reaching thee
thou wilt arise and go to Assyria and Nineveh to the plain of
Nisrin, I will deliver up to thee the kingdom without war and
without fighting.” And the writing of Nadan was like to the
writing of his uncle Haigqar.
Then he folded the two letters, and sealed them with the seal
of his uncle Haigdr; they were nevertheless in the king’s palace.
Then he went and wrote a letter likewise from the king to his
uncle Haigér. “Peace and health to my Vizier, my Secretary, my
Chancellor, Haigar. O Haigdr, when this letter reaches thee,
assemble all the soldiers who are with thee, and let them be
perfect in clothing and in numbers, and bring them to me on the
fifth day in the plain of Nisrin, and when thou shalt see me there
coming towards thee, haste and make the army move against me
as an enemy who would fight with me, for I have with me the
ambassadors of Pharaoh king of Egypt, that they may see the
strength of our army and may fear us, for they are our enemies
and they hate us.”
Then he sealed the letter and sent it to Haigdr by one of the
king’s servants. And he took the other letter which he had
written and spread it before the king and read it to him and
shewed him the seal. And when the king heard what was in the
letter he was perplexed with a great perplexity and was wroth
with a great and fierce wrath and said, “Ah, I have shewn my
wisdom! what have I done to Haigdr that he has written these
letters to my enemies? Is this my recompense from him for my
benefits to him?” And Nadan said to him, “Be not grieved, O King!
nor be wroth, but let us go to the Plain of Nisrin and see if the
tale be true or not.” Then Nadan arose on the fifth day and took
the king and the soldiers and the vizier, and they went to the desert
to the Plain of Nisrin. And the king looked, and lo! Haigér and
FROM THE ARABIC 141
the army were set in array. And when Haigar saw that the king
was there, he approached and signalled to the army to move as in
war and to fight in array against the king as it had been found in
the letter, he not knowing what a pit Nadan had digged for him.
And when the king saw the act of Haigdr he was seized with
anxiety and terror and perplexity, and was wroth with a great wrath.
And Nadan said to him, “ Hast thon seen, O my lord the king!
what this wretch has done? but be not thon wroth and be not
grieved nor pained, but go to thy house and sit on thy throne, and
I will bring Haig4r to thee bound and chained with chains, and I
will chase away thine enemy from thee without toil.”
And the king returned to his throne, being provoked about
Haigar, and did nothing concerning him. And Nadan went to
Haigdr and said to him, “ W’allah, O my uncle! The king verily
rejoiceth in thee with great joy and thanks thee for having done
what he commanded thee. And now he hath sent me to thee
that thon mayest dismiss the soldiers to their duties! and come
thyself to him with thy hands bound behind thee, and thy feet
chained, that the ambassadors of Pharaoh may see this, and that
the king may be feared by them and by their king.” Then
answered Haigar and said, “To hear is to obey.” And he arose
straightway and bound his hands hehind him, and chained his
fect. And Nadan took him and went with him to the king. And
when Haigdr entered the king’s presence he did obeisance before
him on the ground, and wished for power and perpetual life tio the
king. Then said the king, “O Haiqar, my Secretary, the Governor
of my affairs, my Chancellor, the ruler of my State, tell me what
evil have I done to thee that thou hast rewarded me by this ugly
deed.” Then they shewed him the letters in his writing and with
his seal. And when Haigér saw this, his limbs trembled and
his tongue was tied at once, and he was unable to speak a
word from fear; but he hung his head towards the earth and was
dumb. And when the king saw this, he felt certain that the thing
was from him, and he straightway arose and commanded them to
1 Literally ‘“‘to the way of their path.”
f. 90a
f. 90b
f. 9la
142 HAIQAR AND NADAN
kill Haigdr, and to strike his neck with the sword outside of the
city. Then Nadan screamed and said, “O Haigar, O black-face!
what avails thee thy meditation or thy power in the doing of this
deed to the king?”
Thus saith the story-teller. And the name of the swordsman
was Ibn Samik. And the king said unto him, “O swordsman! arise,
go, cleave the neck of Haigdr at the door of his house, and cast
away his head from his body a hundred cubits.” Then Haigar knelt
before the king, and said, “Let my lord the king live for ever!
and if thou desire to slay me, let thy wish be [fulfilled]; and I
know that I am not guilty, but the wicked man has to give an
account of his wickedness; nevertheless, O my lord the king! I
beg of thee and of thy friendship, permit the swordsman to give
my body to my slaves, that they may bury me, and let thy slave
be thy sacrifice.”
The king arose and commanded the swordsman to do with him
according to his desire. And he straightway commanded his
servants to take Haigar and the swordsman and to go with him
naked that they might slay him. And when Haiqar knew for
certain that he was to be slain he sent to his wife and said to
her, “Coine out and. meet me and let there be with thee a
thousand young virgins, and dress them in gowns of purple and
silk that they may weep for me before my death. And prepare a
table for the swordsman and for his servants. And mingle plenty
of wine, that they may drink.”
And she did all that he commanded her. And she was very
wise, clever and prudent. And she united all possible courtesy
and learning.
And when the army of the king and the swordsman arrived
they found the table set in order, and the wine and the luxurious
viands, and they began eating and drinking till they were gorged
and drunken.
Then Haigar took the swordsman aside apart from the company
and said, “O Abu Samik, dost thou not know that when
f.91b Sarhadum the king, the father of Sennacherib, wanted to kill thee,
FROM THE ARABIC 143
I took thee and hid thee in a certain place till the king’s anger
subsided and he asked for thee? And when I brought thee into
his presence he rejoiced in thee: and now remember the kindness
I did thee. And I know that the king will repent him about me
and will be wroth with a great wrath about my execution. For I
am not guilty, and it shall be when thou shalt present me before
him in his palace, thou shalt meet with great good fortune, and
know that Nadan my sister’s son has deceived me and has done
this bad deed to me, and the king will repent of having slain me;
and now I have a cellar in the garden of my house, and no one knows
of it. Hide me in it with the knowledge of my wife. And I have
a slave in prison who deserves to be killed. Bring him out and
dress him in my clothes, and command the servants when they are
drunk to slay him. They will not know who it is they are killing.
And cast away his head a hundred cubits from his body, and give
his body to my slaves that they may bury it. And thou shalt
have laid up a great treasure with me.” And then the swordsman
did as Haigér had commanded him, and he went to the king
and said to him, “ May thy head live for ever!” Then HaiqAr’s
wife let down to him in the hiding-place every week what sufficed
’ for him, and no one knew of it but herself. And the story was
reported and repeated and spread abroad in every place of how
Haigfr the Sage had been slain and was dead, and all the people of
that city mourned for him. And they wept and said: “Alas for
thee, O Haig&r! and for thy learning and thy courtesy! How sad
about thee and about thy knowledge! Where can another like thee
be found ? and where can there be a man so intelligent, so learned, so
skilled in ruling as to resemble thee that he may fill thy place ?”
But the king was repenting about Haigar, and his repentance
availed him nought. Then he called for Nadan and said unto him,
“Go and take thy friends with thee and make a mourning and a
weeping for thy uncle Haiq4r, and lament for him as the custom
is, doing honour to his memory.” But when Nadan, the foolish, the
ignorant, the hard-hearted, went to the house of his uncle, he
neither wept nor sorrowed nor wailed, but assembled heartless
f. 92a
f. 92b
f. 93a
144. HAIQAR AND NADAN
and dissolute people and set about eating and drinking. And
Nadan began to seize the maid-servants and the slaves belonging
to Haigar, and bound them and tortured them and drubbed them
with a sore drubbing. And he did not respect the wife of his uncle,
she who had brought him up like her own boy, but wanted her to
fall into smwith him. But Haiqar had been cast mto the hiding-
place, and he heard the weeping of his slaves and his neighbours,
and he praised the Most High God, the Merciful One, and gave
thanks, and he always prayed and besought the Most High God.
And the swordsman came from time to time to Haigar whilst he was
in the midst of the hiding-place: and Haigdr came and entreated
him. And he comforted him and wished him deliverance.
And when the story was reported in other countnes that
Haiqar the Sage had been slain, all the kings were grieved and
despised king Sennacherib, and they lamented over Haigdr the
solver of riddles. And when the king of Egypt had made sure
that Haigar was slain, he arose straightway and wrote a letter to
king Sennacherib reminding him in it “of the peace and the health
and the might and the honour which we wish specially for thee,
my beloved brother, king Sennacherib. I have been desiring to
build a castle between the heaven and the earth, and I want thee
to send me a wise, clever man from thyself to build it for me, and
to answer me all my questions, and that I may have the taxes! and
the custom duties of Assyria for three years.” Then he sealed the
letter and sent 1t toSennacherib. He took it and read it and gave
it to his viziers and to the nobles of his kingdom, and they were
perplexed and ashamed, and he was wroth with a great wrath, and
was puzzled about how he should act. Then he assembled the old
men and the learned men and the wise men and the philosophers,
and the diviners and the astrologers, and every one who was in
his country, and read them the letter and said unto them, “ Who
amongst you will go to Pharaoh king of Egypt and answer him
his questions?” And they said unto him, “O our lord the king!
1 T.e. taxes in kind, agricultural produce. For this rendering of the Arabic word
see Dozy vol. II p. 345.
FROM THE ARABIC 145
know thou that there is none in thy kingdom who is acquainted
with these questions except Haiqar, thy vizier and secretary. But
as for us, we have no skill in this, unless it be Nadan, his sister’s
son, for he taught him all his wisdom and learning and knowledge.
Call him to thee, perchance he may untie this hard knot.” Then
the king called Nadan and said unto him, “ Look at this letter and
understand what is in it.’ And when Nadan read it, he said, “O
my lord! who is able to build a castle between the heaven and
the earth ?”
And when the king heard the speech of Nadan he sorrowed
with a great and sore sorrow, and stepped down from his throne
and sat on the ashes, and began to weep and wail over Haigqar,
saying, “O my grief! O Haigdr, who didst know the secrets and the
riddles! woe is me for thee, O Haigar! O teacher of my country
and ruler of my kingdom, where shall I find thy like? O Haigar,
O teacher of my country, where shall I turn for thee? woe is me
for thee! how did I destroy thee! and I listened to the talk of a
stupid, ignorant boy without knowledge, without religion, without
manliness. Ah! and again Ah for myself! who can give thee to
me just for once, or bring me word that Haigar is alive? and I
would give him the half of my kingdom. Whence is this to me?
Ah Haigar! that I might see thee just for once, that I might take
my fill of gazing at thee, and delighting in thee. Ah! O my grief
for thee to all time! O Haigar, how have I killed thee! and I
tarried not in thy case till I had seen the end of the matter.” And
the king went on weeping night and day. Now when the swords-
man saw the wrath of the king and his sorrow for Haiqar, his
heart was softened towards him, and he approached into his
presence and said unto him: “O my lord! command thy servants
to cut off my head.” Then said the king to him: “Woe to thee,
Abu Samik, what is thy fault?” And the swordsman said unto
him, “O my master! every slave who acts contrary to the word of
his master is killed?, and I have acted contrary to thy command.”
Then the king said unto him, “ Woe unto thee, O Abu Samik, in
1 B.M. ms. ‘is erucified.”’
L. A. T
f. 93 b
i, 94a
f. 94b
146 HAIQAR AND NADAN
what hast thou acted contrary to my command?” And the
swordsman said unto him, “O my lord! thou didst command me
to kill Haig4r, and I knew that thou wouldst repent thee concern-
ing him, and that he had been wronged, and I hid him in a certain
place, and I killed one of his slaves, and he is now safe in the
cistern, and if thou command me I will bring him to thee.” And
the king said unto him, “Woe to thee, O Abu Samik! thou
hast mocked me and I am thy lord.” And the swordsman said
unto him, “Nay, but by the life of thy head, O my lord! Haigar
is safe and alive.” And when the king heard that saying, he felt
sure of the matter, and his head swam!', and he fainted from joy,
and he commanded [them] to bring [Haigar], And he said to the
swordsman, “O trusty servant ! if thy speech be true, I would fain
enrich thee, and exalt thy dignity above that of all thy friends.” And
the swordsman went along rejoicing till he came to Haig4r’s house.
And he opened the door of the hiding-place, and went down and
found Haiq4r sitting, praising God, and thanking Him. And he
shouted to him, saying, “O Haigar, I bring the greatest of joy!
and happiness, and delight!” And Haig4r said unto him, “ What
is the news, O Abu Samik?” And he told him all about Pharaoh
from the beginning to the end. Then he took him and went to
the king. And when the king looked at him, and saw him ina
state of want, and that his hair had grown long hke the wild beasts’
and his nails like the claws of an eagle, and that his body was dirty
with dust, and the colour of his face had changed and faded and
was now like ashes. And when the king saw him he sorrowed
over him and rose at once and embraced him and kissed him, and
wept over him and said: “ Praise be to God! who hath brought
thee back to me.’ Then he consoled him and comforted him.
And he stripped off his robe, and put it on the swordsman, and
was very gracious to him, and gave him great wealth, and made
Hagar rest.
Then said Haiqgar to the king, “Let my lord the king live for
ever! These be the deeds of the children of the world. I have
1 Literally “his reason flew.” * Cod. ‘*him.”
FROM THE ARABIC 147
reared me a palm-tree that I might lean on it, and it bent side-
ways, and threw me down. But, O my lord! since I have appeared
before thee, let not care oppress thee.” And the king said unto
him: “Blessed be God, who shewed thee mercy, and knew that thou
wast wronged, and saved thee and delivered thee from being slain.
But go to the warm bath, and shave thy head, and cut thy nails,
and change thy clothes, and amuse thyself for the space of forty
days, that thou mayest do good to thyself and improve thy condition
and the colour of thy face may come back to thee.” Then the king
stripped off his costly robe, and put it on Haigdr, and Haigar
thanked God and did obeisance to the king, and departed to his
dwelling glad and happy, praising the Most High God. And the
people of his household rejoiced with him, and his friends and
every one who heard that he was alive rejoiced also.
And he did as the king commanded him, and took a rest for
forty days. Then he dressed himself in his gayest dress, and went
riding to the king, with his slaves behind him and before him,
rejoicing and delighted. But when Nadan his sister’s son per-
ceived what was happening, fear took hold of him and terror, and
he was perplexed, not knowing what to do. And when Haiqar saw
it he entered into the king’s presence and greeted him, and he
returned the greeting, and made him sit down at his side, saying
to him, “O my darling Haigr ! look at these letters which the king
of Egypt sent to us, after he had heard that thou wast slain.
They have provoked us and overcome us, and many of the people of
our country have fled to Egypt for fear of the taxes that the king
of Egypt has sent to demand from us.” Then Haiqdr took the
letter and read it and understood all its contents. ‘Then he said
to the king, “ Be not wroth, O my lord! I will go to Egypt, and I
will return the answers to Pharaoh, and I will display this letter
to him, and I will reply to him about the taxes, and I will send
back all those who have run away; and I will put thy enemies to
shame with the help of the Most High God, and for the happiness
of thy kingdom.” And when the king heard this speech from
Haigar he rejoiced with a great joy, and his heart was expanded
f. 95b
f. 96a
f. 96 b
148 HAIQAR AND NADAN
and he shewed him favour. And Haig&r said unto the king:
“Grant me a delay of forty days that I may consider this question
and manage it.” And the king permitted this. And Haiqar went
to his dwelling, and he commanded the huntsmen to capture two
young eaglets for him, and they captured them and brought them
to him: and he commanded the weavers of ropes to weave two
cables of cotton for him, each of them two thousand cubits long, and
he had the carpenters brought and ordered them to make two
great boxes, and they did this. Then he took two little lads,
and spent every day sacrificmg lambs and feeding the eagles
and the boys, and making the boys ride on the backs of the eagles,
and he bound them with a firm knot, and tied the cable to the
feet of the eagles, and let them soar upwards little by little every
day, to a distance of ten cubits, till they grew accustomed and
were educated to it; and they rose all the length of the rope till
they reached the sky; the boys being on their backs. Then he
drew them to himself.
And when Haiqar saw that his desire was fulfilled he charged
the boys that when they were borne aloft to the sky they were to
shout, saying, “Bring us clay and stone, that we may build a castle
for king Pharaoh, for we are idle.” And Haigdr was never done
training them and exercising them till they had reached the
utmost possible point (of skill). Then leaving them he went to
the king and said to him, “O my lord! the work is finished
according to thy desire. Arise with me that I may shew thee
the wonder.” So the king sprang up and sat with Haigdr and
went to a wide place and sent to bring the eagles and the boys,
and he tied them and let them off into the air all the length of
the ropes, and they began to shout as Haigdr had taught them.
Then he drew them to himself and put them in their places. And
the king and those who were with him wondered with a great
wonder: and the king kissed Haigdr between his eyes and said to
him, “Go im peace, O my beloved! O pride of my kingdom! to
Egypt and answer the questions of Pharaoh and overcome him by
the strength of the Most High God.” Then he bade him farewell,
FROM THE ARABIC 149
and took his troops and his army and the young men and the
eagles, and went towards the dwellings of Egypt; and when he
had arrived, he turned towards the country of the king. And
when the people of Egypt knew that Sennacherib had sent a man
of his Privy Council to talk with Pharaoh and to answer his
questions, they carried the news to king Pharaoh, and he sent a
party of his Privy Councillors to bring him before him!. And he
came and entered into the presence of Pharaoh, and did obeisance
to him as it is fitting to do to kings. And he said unto him: “O my
lord the king! Sennacherib the king hails thee with abundance of
peace and might, and honour; and he has sent me, who am one of
his slaves, that I may answer thee thy questions, and may fulfil all
thy desire: for thou hast sent to seek from my lord the king a
man who will build thee a castle between the heaven and the earth.
And I by the help of the Most High God and thy noble favour
and the power of my lord the king will build [it] for thee as thou
desirest. But, O my lord the king! what thou hast said in it
about the taxes of Egypt for three years—now the stability of a
kingdom 1s strict justice, and if thou winnest and my hand hath no
skill in replying to thee, then my lord the king will send thee the
taxes which thou hast mentioned, and if I shall have answered
thee in thy questions, it shall remain for thee to send whatever
thou hast mentioned to my lord the king.”
And when Pharaoh heard that speech, he wondered and was
perplexed by the freedom of his tongue, and the pleasantness of his
speech. And king Pharaoh said unto him, “O man! what is thy
name?” And he said, “Thy servant is Abigdm, and I am a little
ant of the ants of king Sennacherib.” And Pharaoh said unto him,
“ Had thy lord no one of higher dignity than thee, that he has sent
me a little ant to reply to me, and to converse with me?” And
Haig4r said unto him, “O my lord the king! I would to God Most
High that I may fulfil what is on thy mind, for God is with the
weak that he may confound the strong.” Then Pharaoh commanded
that they should prepare a dwelling for Abiqam and supply him
1 Literally ‘‘ betwixt his hands.”
f. 97a
150 HAIQAR AND NADAN
with provender, meat, and drink, and all that he needed. And
f.97b when it was finished three days afterwards Pharaoh clothed him-
f. 98a
self in purple and red and sat on his throne, and all his viziers and
the magnates of his kingdom were standing with their hands crossed,
their feet close together, and their heads bowed. And Pharaoh
sent to fetch Abig4m, and when he was presented to him, he did
obeisance before him, and kissed the ground in front of him’.
And king Pharaoh said unto him, “O Abigém, whom am I like ? and
the nobles of my kingdom, to whom are they like?” And Haigar
said unto him, “O my lord the king! thou art like the idol Bel, and
the nobles of thy kingdom are hike his servants.” He said unto
him, “Go, and come back hither to-morrow.” So Haigar went as
king Pharaoh had commanded him. And on the morrow Haigar
went into the presence of Pharaoh, and did obeisance, and stood
before the king. And Pharaoh was dressed in a red colour, and
the nobles were dressed in white. And Pharaoh said unto him, “O
Abigaém, whom am I hke? and the nobles of my kingdom, to whom
are they hke?” And Abig&m said unto him, “O my lord! thou
art like the sun, and thy servants are like [its] beams.” And
Pharaoh said unto him, “Go to thy dwelling, and come hither to-
moorrow.” Then Pharaoh commanded his Court to wear pure
white’, and Pharaoh was dressed like them and sat upon his throne,
and he commanded them to fetch Haigar. And he entered and sat
down before him. And Pharaoh said unto him, “O Abigém, whom
am I like? and my nobles, to whom are they like?” And Abiqém
said unto him, “O my lord! thou art like the moon, and thy nobles
are like the planets and the stars.” And Pharaoh said unto him,
“Go, and to-morrow be thou here.” Then Pharaoh commanded
his servants to wear robes of various colours, and Pharaoh wore a
red velvet dress, and sat on his throne, and commanded them to
fetch Abiqgim. And he entered and did obeisance before him.
And he said, “O Abiq&ém, whom am I lke? and my armies, to
whom are they like?” And he said, “O my lord! thou art like the
month of April, and thy armies are like its flowers.” And when
1 Literally ‘‘between his hands.” 2 Or a dress completely white.
FROM THE ARABIC 151
the king heard it he rejoiced with a great joy, and said, “O
Abiqam! the first time thou didst compare me to the idol Bel,
and my nobles to his servants. And the second time thou didst
compare me to the sun, and my nobles to the sun-beams. And
the third time thou didst compare me to the moon, and my nobles
to the planets and the stars, and the fourth time thou didst com-
pare me to the month of April, and my nobles to its flowers. But
now, O Abiqém! tell me, thy lord, king Sennacherib, whom is he
like ? and his nobles, to whom are they like?” And Haiqar shouted
with a loud voice and said: “ Be 1t far from me to make mention of
my lord the king and thou seated on thy throne. But get up on
thy feet that I may tell thee whom my lord the king is like and
to whom his nobles are like.”
And Pharaoh was perplexed by the freedom of his tongue and
his boldness in answering. Then Pharaoh arose from his throne, and
stood before Haiq&r, and said unto him, “Tell me now, that I may
perceive whom thy lord the king is like, and his nobles, to whom
they are like.” And Haigar said unto him: “ My lord is the God
of heaven, and his nobles are the lightnmgs and the thunder; and
when he wills, the winds blow and the rain falls. And he com-
mands the thunder, and it lightens and rains, and he holds the
sun, and it gives not its light, and the moon and the stars, and they
circle not. And he commands the tempests, and it blows and the
rain falls, and it tramples on April and destroys its flowers and its
houses.”
And when Pharaoh heard this speech, he was greatly perplexed
and was wroth with a great wrath, and said unto him: “O man!
tell me the truth, and let me know who thou really art.”
And he told him the truth. “Iam Haigfr the scribe, greatest
of the Privy Councillors of king Sennacherib, and I am his Vizier
and the Governor of his kingdom, and his Chancellor.”
And he said unto him, “Thou hast told the truth in this
saying. But we have heard of Haiqar, that king Sennacherib
has slain him, yet thou dost seem to be alive and well.” And
Haiqar said unto him, “ Yes, so it was, but praise be to God, Who
f. 98b
f. 99a
f. 99 b
f. 100 a
152 HAIQAR AND NADAN
knoweth what is hidden, for my lord the king commanded me to
be killed, and he believed the word of profligate men, but the Lord
delivered me, and blessed is he who trusteth in Him.”
And Pharaoh said unto Haigar, “Go, and to-morrow be thou
here, and tell me a word that I have never heard from my nobles
nor from the people of my kingdom and my country.” And Haigdr
went to his dwelling, and wrote a letter saying in it on this wise:
“From Sennacherib king of Assyria and Nineveh to Pharaoh
king of Egypt.
“Peace be to thee, O my brother! and what we make known
to thee by this is that a brother has need of his brother, and kings
of each other, and [my] hope from thee is that thou wouldst lend
me nine hundred talents of gold, for I need it for the victualling of
some of the soldiers, that I may spend [it] upon them. And after
a little while I will send it thee.” Then he folded the letter, and
presented it on the morrow to Pharaoh. And when he saw it, he
was perplexed and said unto him, “ Verily I have never heard any-
thing like this language from any one.’ ‘Then Haiq4r said unto
him, “Truly this is a debt which thou owest to my lord the king.”
And Pharaoh accepted this, saying, “O Haiq4r, it is the like of
thee who are honest in the service of kings. Blessed be God who
hath made thee perfect in wisdom, and hath adorned thee with
philosophy and knowledge. And now, O Haigar, there remains
what we desire from thee, that thou shouldest build us a castle
between heaven and earth.”
Then said Haiqar, “To hear is to obey. I will build thee a
castle according to thy wish and choice; but, O my lord! prepare
us lime and stone and clay and workmen, and I have skilled
builders who will build for thee as thou desirest.” And the king
prepared all that for him, and they went to a wide place; and
Haigdr and his boys came to it, and he took the eagles, and the
young men with him; and the king and all his nobles went and
the whole city assembled, that they might see what Haigar would
do.
Then Haigdr let the eagles out of the boxes, and tied the
FROM THE ARABIC 153
young men on their backs', and tied the ropes to the eagles’
feet, and let them go in the air. And they soared upwards, till
they remained between heaven and earth. And the boys began
to shout, saying, “ Bring bricks, bring clay, that we may build the
king’s castle, for we are standing idle !”
And the crowd were astonished and perplexed, and they
wondered. And the king and his nobles wondered. And Haig&r
and his servants began to beat the workmen, and they shouted for
the king’s troops, saying to them, “Bring to the skilled workmen
what they want and do not hinder them from their work.” And the
king said unto him, “Thou art mad; who can bring anything up to
that distance?” And Haiq&r said unto him, “O my lord ! how shall
we build a castle in the air? and if my lord the king were here,
he would have built several castles in a single day.” And Pharaoh
said unto him, “Go, O Haiqar, to thy dwelling, and rest, for we
have given up? building the castle, and to-morrow come to me.”
Then Haigar went to his dwelling and on the morrow he
appeared before Pharaoh, And Pharaoh said, “O Haigqar,
what news is there of the horse of thy lord? for when he neighs
in the country of Assyria and Nineveh, and our mares hear his
voice, they cast their young.” And when Haigar heard this speech
he went and took a cat, and bound her and began to flog her with
a violent flogging till the Egyptians heard it and they went and
told the king about it. And Pharaoh sent to fetch Haiqar, and
said unto him, “O Haiq4r, wherefore dost thou flog thus and beat
that dumb beast?” And Haigar said unto him, “O my lord the
king! verily she has done an ugly deed to me, and has deserved
this drubbing and flogging, for my lord king Sennacherib had
given me a fine cock, and he had a strong true voice and knew the
hours of the day and the night. And the cat got up this very
night and cut off its head and went away, and because of this deed
I have treated her to this drubbing.” And Pharaoh said unto him,
“QO Haigdr, I see from all this that thou art growing old and art
1 Literally ‘‘on the eagles’ backs.”
2 Literally ‘‘we have passed away from.”
f. 100b
f.10la
f. 101 b
154, HAIQAR AND NADAN
in thy dotage, for between Egypt and Nineveh there are sixty-
eight parasangs, and how did she go this very night and cut off
the head of thy cock and come back ?”
And Haig4r said unto him, “O my lord! if there were such a
distance between Egypt and Nineveh, how could thy mares hear
when my lord the king’s horse neighs and cast their young? and
how could the voice of the horse reach to Egypt ?”
And when Pharaoh heard that, he knew that Haiqar had
answered his questions. And Pharaoh said, “O Haigqar, I want thee
to make me ropes of the sea-sand.” And Haiqar said unto him,
“OQ my lord the king! order them to bring me a rope out of the
treasury that I may make one like 1t.” Then Haiqdar went to the
back of the house, and bored holes in the rough shore of the sea,
and took a handful of sand in his hand, sea-sand, and when the
sun rose, and penetrated into the holes, he spread the sand in the
sun till it became as if woven like ropes. And Haiqr said,
“Command thy servants to take these ropes, and whenever thou
desirest it, I will weave thee (some) like them.” And Pharaoh said,
“OQ Haigar, we have a millstone here and 1t has been broken, and I
want thee to sew 1t up.” Then Haiqar looked at it, and found
another stone. And he said unto Pharaoh, “O my lord! Iam a
foreigner, and I have no tool for sewing. But I want thee to com-
mand thy faithful shoemakers to cut awls from this stone, that I may
sew that mill-stone.” Then Pharaoh and all his nobles laughed.
And he said, “ Blessed be the Most High God, who gave thee this
wit and knowledge.” And when Pharaoh saw that Haiqar had
overcome him, and returned him his answers, he at once became
excited, and commanded them to collect for him three years’ taxes,
and to bring them to Haigér. And he stripped off his robes and
put them upon Haigar, and his soldiers, and his servants, and gave
him the expenses of his journey. And he said unto him, “Go in
peace, O strength of thy lord and pride of his Doctors! have any
of the Sultans thy like? give my greetings to! thy lord, king
1 Literally ‘“my peace upon.”
FROM THE ARABIC 155
Sennacherib, and say unto him how we have sent him gifts, for
kings are content with little.”
Then Haiqdr arose, and kissed king Pharaoh’s hands and kissed
the ground in front of him, and wished him strength and continu-
ance, and abundance in his treasury, and said unto him, “O my lord!
I desire from thee that not one of our countrymen may remain in
Egypt.” And Pharaoh arose and sent heralds to proclaim in the
streets of Egypt that not one of the people of Assyria or Nineveh
should remain in the land of Egypt, but that they should go with
Haigér. Then Haigdr went and took leave of king Pharaoh, and
journeyed, seeking the land of Assyria and Nineveh; and he had
some treasures and a great deal of wealth.
And when the news reached king Sennacherib that Haiqar
was coming, he went out to meet him and rejoiced over him
exceedingly with great joy and embraced him and kissed him, and
said unto him, “Welcome home, O kinsman! my brother Haiqér, the
strength of my kingdom, and pride of my realm! Ask what thou
wouldst have from me, even-if thou desirest the half of my kingdom
and of my possessions.” Then said Haig4r unto him, “O my lord
the king, live for ever! Shew favour,O my lord the king! to Abu
Samik in my stead, for my life was in the hands of God and in his.”
Then said Sennacherib the king, “ Honour be to thee, O my
beloved Haigér! I will make the station of Abu Samik the
swordsman higher than all my Privy Councillors and my favourites.”
Then the king began to ask him how he had got on with Pharaoh
from his first arrival until he had come away from his presence,
and how he had answered all his questions, and how he had
received the taxes from him, and the changes of raiment and the
presents. And Sennachenib the king rejoiced with a great joy,
and said unto Haiqar, “Take what thou wouldst fain have of this
tribute, for it is all within the grasp of thy hand.” And Haigar
said: “Let the king live for ever! I desire nought but the safety
of my lord the king and the continuance of his greatness. O my
lord! what can I do with wealth and its like’? but if thou wilt
1 This is one of the cases in which Opa may have the sense of dergleichen.
f. 1024
f, 102 b
f. 103 a
f. 103 b
156 HAIQAR AND NADAN
shew me favour, give me Nadan, my sister’s son, that I may
recompense him for what he has done to me, and grant me his
blood and hold me guiltless of 1t.”
And Sennacherib the king said, “Take him, I have given him
to thee.” And Haig&r took Nadan, his sister’s son, and bound his
hands with chains of iron, and took him to his dwelling, and put a
heavy fetter on his feet, and tied 1t with a tight knot, and after
binding him thus he cast him into a dark room, beside the
retiring-place, and appointed Nebu-hal as sentinel over him and
commanded him to give him a loaf of bread and a little water
every day; and whenever Haigar went in or out he scolded Nadan,
his sister’s son, saying to him wisely,
“OQ Nadan, my boy! I have done to thee all that is good and
kind, and thou hast rewarded me for it with what 1s ugly and bad
and with killing.
“Q my son! 1t is said in the proverbs: He who listeneth not
with his ear, they will make him listen with the scruff of his neck.”
And Nadan said, “For what cause art thou wroth with
me?”
And Haigar said unto him, “ Because I brought thee up, and
taught thee, and gave thee honour and respect and made thee
great, and reared thee with the best of breeding, and seated thee
in my place that thou mightest be my heir in the world, and thou
didst treat me with killing and didst repay me with my ruin. But
the Lord knew that I was wronged, and He saved me from the
snare which thou hadst set for me, for the Lord healeth the
broken hearts and hindereth the envious and the haughty.”
“O my boy! thou hast been to me like the scorpion which,
when it strikes on brass, pierces it.”
“OQ my boy! thou art lke the gazelle who was eating the roots
of the madder, and 1% said to her, ‘Eat of me to-day and take thy
fill, and to-morrow they will tan thy hide in my roots.’”
“O my boy! thou hast been to me hke a man who saw his
comrade naked in the chilly time of winter; and he took cold
water and poured it upon him.”
6
7
8
9
10
1]
FROM THE ARABIC 157
“Q my boy! thou hast been to me like a man who took a
stone, and threw it up to heaven to stone his Lord with it. And
the stone did not hit, and did not reach high enough, but it became
the cause of guilt and sin.”
“OQ my boy! if thou hadst honoured me and respected me and
hadst listened to my words thou wouldst have been my heir, and
wouldst have reigned over my dominions.”
“Q my son! know thou that if the tail of the dog or the pig
were ten cubits long it would not approach to the worth of the
horse’s even if it were like silk.”
“OQ my boy! I thought that thou wouldst have been my heir
at my death; and thou through thy envy and thy insolence
didst desire to kill me. But the Lord delivered me from thy
cunning.”
“OQ my boy! thou hast been to me (as) a lion who made
friends with an ass, and the ass kept walking before the lion for
a time; and one day the lion sprang upon the ass and ate it
up.”
“QO my son! thou hast been to me like a trap which was set
up on the dunghill, and there came a sparrow and found the trap
set up. And the sparrow said to the trap, ‘ What doest thou here?’
Said the trap, ‘I am praying here to God.’
“ And the lark? asked it also, ‘What is the piece of wood that
thou holdest ?’ Said the trap, ‘That is a young oak-tree on which
I lean at the time of prayer.’ Said the lark: ‘ And what is that
thing in thy mouth?’ Said the trap: ‘That is bread and victuals
which I carry for all the hungry and the poor who come near to
me.’ Said the lark: ‘Now then may I come forward and eat, for
I am hungry?’ and the trap said to him, ‘Come forward.’ And
the lark approached that it might eat. But the trap sprang up
and seized the lark by its neck. And the lark answered and said
to the trap, ‘If that is thy bread for the hungry God accepteth
not thine alms and thy kind deeds. And if that is thy fasting
1 For this rendering of Lgntd see Payne Smith’s hes. Syr. col, 3555,
WelaeAa53,
158 HAIQAR AND NADAN
and thy prayers, God accepteth from thee neither thy fast nor thy
prayer, and God will not perfect what is good concerning thee.’”
12a “O my boy! thou hast been to me like a weevil in the wheat,
f.104a for it does no good to anything, but spoils the wheat and gnaws
it.”
126 “OQ my boy! thou hast been like a man who sowed ten
measures of wheat, and when it was harvest time, he arose and
reaped it, and garnered it, and threshed it, and toiled over it
to the very utmost, and it turned out to be ten measures, and
its master said to it: ‘O thou lazy thing! thou hast not grown
and thou hast not shrunk.’”?!
13 “O my boy! thou hast been to me like the partridge that had
been thrown into the net, and she could not save herself, but she
called out to the partridges, that she might cast them with her
(self) into the net.”
14 “O my son! thou hast been to me like the dog that was cold
and it went into the potter’s house to get warm. And when it
had got warm, it began to bark at them, and they chased it out
and beat it, that it might not bite them.”
15 “OQ my son! thou hast been to me like a pig who went into
the hot bath with people of quality, and when it came out of the
hot bath, it saw a filthy hole? and it went down and wallowed
in it.”
16 “OQmy son! thou hast been to me like the goat which joined
its comrades (on their way) to the sacrifice, and it was unable to
save itself.” 5
17. “OQ my boy! the dog which is not fed from its hunting becomes
food for flies.”
18 “O my son! the hand which doth not labour and plough
pie and (which) is greedy and cunning shall be cut away from its
shoulder.”
1 This meaning of ype will be found in Lane, p. 1776, col. 3.
% Gire means a hollow place, sién is presumably from the Hebrew }\D to be
soft or sticky and the Syriac pce limus, coenum. I can find no justification
for sidgq, the reading of the MSS. used by Salhan and Lidzbarski.
FROM THE ARABIC 159
19° “O my son! the eye in which light is not seen, the ravens
shall pick at it and pluck it out.”
20 “Q my boy! thou hast been to me like a tree whose
branches they were cutting, and it said to them, ‘If (something) of
me were not in your hands, verily you would be unable to cut me.’”
21 “O my boy! thou art like the cat to whom they said: ‘ Leave
off thieving till we make for thee a chain of gold and feed thee
with sugar and almonds.’ And she said, ‘I am not forgetful of
the craft of my father and my mother.”
22 “O my son! thou hast been like the serpent riding on a
thorn-bush when he was in the midst of a river, and a wolf saw
them and said, (‘Mischief upon mischief, and let him who is more
mischievous than they direct both of them.’ And the serpent
said to the wolf,‘The lambs and the goats and the sheep which
thou hast eaten all thy life, wilt thou return them to their fathers
and to their parents or no?’ Said the wolf, ‘No. And the
serpent said to him, ‘I think that after myself thou art the
worst of us.’”’)
23 “QOmy boy! I fed thee with good food and thou didst not feed
me with dry’ bread.”
24 “OQ my boy! I gave thee sugared water to drink and good
syrup, and thou didst not give me water from the well to drink.”
25 “O my boy! I taught thee, and brought thee up, and thou
didst dig a hiding-place for me and didst conceal me.”
26 “O my boy! I brought thee up with the-best upbringing and
trained thee like a tall cedar; and thou hast twisted and bent
27 “O my boy! it was my hope concerning thee that thou
wouldest build me a fortified castle, that I might be concealed
from my enemies in it, and thou didst become to me like one
burying in the depth of the earth; but the Lord took pity on me
and delivered me from thy cunning.”
28 “QO my boy! I wished thee well, and thou didst reward me
1 For this meaning of sla po ef. Lane, Book I, part 2, p. 598, Badger, p. 272.
B.M. ms.
f. 210a
f, 105 a
160 HAIQAR AND NADAN
(with) evil and hatefulness, and now I would fain tear out thine
eyes, and make thee food for dogs, and cut ont thy tongue, and
take off thy head with the edge of the sword, and recompense
thee for thine abominable deeds.”
And when Nadan heard this speech from his uncle Haigar, he
said: “O my uncle! deal with me according to thy knowledge,
and forgive me my sins, for who is there who hath sinned like me,
or who is there who forgives like thee? Accept me, O my uncle!
Now I will serve in thy house, and groom thy horses and sweep
up the dung of thy cattle, and feed thy sheep, for I am the wicked
and thou art the righteous: I the guilty and thou the forgiving.”
29 And Haig4r said unto him, “O my boy! thou art like the tree
which was fruitless beside the water, and its master was fain to
cut it down, and it said to him, ‘ Remove me to another place, and
if I do not bear fruit, cut me down. And its master said to it,
‘Thou being beside the water hast not borne fruit, how shalt thou
bear fruit when thou art in another place ?’”
f.105b 30 ‘“O my boy! the old age of the eagle is better than the youth
of the crow.”
31 “Omy boy! they said to the wolf, ‘Keep away from the sheep
lest their dust shonld harm thee.’ And the wolf said ‘The dregs
of the sheep’s milk? are good for my eyes. ”
32 “Omy boy! they made the wolf go to school that he might
learn to read, and they said to him, ‘Say A, B. He said, ‘ Lamb
and goat? in my belly.”
33 “O my boy! they set the ass down at the table and he fell,
and began to roll himself in the dust, and one said, ‘ Let him roll
himself, for it is his nature, he will not change.’”
34 “O my boy! the saying has been confirmed which runs: ‘If
thou begettest a boy, call him thy son, and if thou rearest a boy,
call him thy slave.’ ”
1 This is evidently a pun, ghabar meaning dust, and ghubr the last milk
in the udder.
2 The animals mentioned by the wolf had names which doubtless hegan with
A, B. In the Arabic and English this is lost.
FROM THE ARABIC 161
35 “OQ my boy! he who doeth good shall meet with good; and he
who doeth evil shall meet with evil, for the Lord requiteth a man
according to the measure of his work.”
“O my boy! what shall I say more to thee than these sayings?
for the Lord knoweth what is hidden, and is acquainted with the
mysteries and the secrets. And He will requite thee and will
judge betwixt thee and me, and will recompense thee according to
thy desert.”
And when Nadan heard that speech from his uncle Haig4r, he
swelled up immediately and became like a blown-out bladder. f. 106a
And his limbs swelled and his legs and his feet and his side, and
he was torn and his belly burst asunder and his entrails were
scattered, and he perished, and died. And his latter end was
destruction, and he went to hell. For he who digs a pit for his
brother shall fall into it; and he who sets up traps shall be caught
in them. This is what happened and (what) we found about the
tale of Haigdr, and praise be to God for ever. Amen, and peace.
This chronicle 1s finished with the help of God, may He be exalted!
Amen, Amen, Amen.
36
AL:
c. XXill.
G. XXIV.
THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR, GREEK VERSION
The following is the portion of the story of Aesop which shows
coincidence with Ahikar.
Fabulae Romanenses Graece Conscriptae (ed. Eberhard).
4 \ fal al # ra)
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THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR, GREEK VERSION 163
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C, XV.
c. xxvi. 1
13
Cc, XXVil.
164 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
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npos SlayéXacayTos, aTavTa Ta TpOS THY OdoV TYTKEVaATadpEVOS
GREEK VERSION 165
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Cc. XXVIII.
Cc. XXix.
C. XXX.
c. XXX1
166 THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
Onreas de immo, aimep émevday axovawot tav év BaBvrave
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€ P / \ \
cov, a av a’Tny émidvons. Kat o Alowmos: “Wevdn: eos yap
n ral \ ? ra]
map avOpwmov ovdev Setras pabeiv. ot dé ob povoy cauTod
ra] n fa) 3 Ld 9
KaTnyopels, GANG Kal TOU Geot cov. ETEepos TaAw eiTrev: “‘ Eat
X f N > > a ~ 5 7 an 1 y e ¢ ta
vaos péeyas Kal év avT@ otidos, dMdexa rrodets? Eywv, bv EKaoTH
a ? \ f f 6 j
Tptaxovta doxois éoréyaoTtat, ToUTous 5é Treptiact Svo yuvaiKes.”
fal N \ e > ¢ ww
kat o Alowmos ébn: “todto To mpoBAnua Kal of Tap nwiv
a Ka e / fa)
érrikvcovTat aloes’ vaos fev yap éoTLY OVTOS 0 KOGpLOS, TTDAOS
Ny Cate? \ e be f ¢ a . DS ‘ e ? € /
5é 0 éveauros, al S€ modes of pves, Kat OoKOL at TOVTWY NEPAL,
a \ > é /
jucpa b& Kal vd& ai Svo yuvaixes, at mapadda€ adrnraus dvade-
yovTat.
1 Sic! Quaere wvdas.
GREEK VERSION 167
A . 9 n oe f \ f ‘
TH O€ ébetfis nuépa auyxarécas Tors didovs mavtas 6
, \ a
NextevaBw dnov: “did tov Aicwrov todrov ddAjcopev hopous
La) A td / al a)
T@ Baotrel Avenpw.” eis b€ Tus avtov ele: “ KeXeVTwpEV AUTO
/ 4 a \ ? ’
TpoPrAnuata dpdoas Hutv, mepl ay oT eldopev OUT HKovaapeD.”
3 \ nw nn
apectoyv ovv tov’To T@® NextrevaBa dd€av, cadécas tov Aiawrrov
¥ / n i
epn: “dpacov nuiv, Aiowrre, mpoBAnwa Tept ov ovT eldoper
f > 3 , x nm fa)
OUT nKOoVoapev.” Kai ds* “ avptoy wep ToUTOU Diy arroKpLVOU-
3) b A 9 \ / an > k¢ /
pat. ameNav ovy kai cuvTaEapevos ypapparetor, év @ TEpLElYeETo
¢ nm a
NextevaBo oporoyav xidta Taddavta TO Avehpw odpetreiv, T@ias
éravenOov rad Bacthei TO ypapuatetov érédmxev. ot bé Tod
f f \ 3 nn \ fal f ¥
Bactrews hiro, rply avoryOnvat TO ypappatetov, TavTes éNeyov*
¢¢ \ x” fal A 3 ‘4 \ 3 a) 3 ‘4 3? X
Kat eldopeyv TODTO Kal HKovoapeY, Kai GXynO@s émiaTapcBa,.” Kai
t Vv ts / tc A ed n 3 f td ”? c \
0 Alaowmros: “yapw btpiv oida THs amrodocews Evexev.” Oo Oé
NextevaBo@ Thv oporoyiay THs oherns avayvors eitev: “ éuov
Auknpm pnodév odeirovtos mavTes wpmels paptupeite ;” KaKelvor
pe pnbe s ¢ bpcis paptupelre ;
f 3 « vw} 18 v.> 3 / > \ t
peraRaXrovtes ecitrov: “ovt eldouev oT nKovaapev.” Kal o
Aicwmos: “kai e tad? ottws Eyer, AN€AUTAL TO EnTOvpevor.”
\ ¢& \ 4 n tec f , 3 A -
cat 0 NexrevaBo@ mpos tavra: “ paxdpios €ots AvKnpos tosavrTny
o th 3 A 8B x 4 t ray é +B 4 cy
codiay év TH Bactreta EavToOU KExTHMEVOS.” TOvS OvY TULdhwry-
Ge do 5 4 ~ At é 3 > f > / Xx
éytas opovs tapado’s To Aicwm@, ev eipnyn améoTetnev.
v 3 >? an f m / /
Aicwtos 8 cis BaBurXava twapayevopevos, dveEHNOE tre AuKnpw
\ + > ¢ , fa! \ \ f 3 f
Ta éy Atyurrt@ mpayfevta taita Kai tovs gopovs amédw«e.
Avkipos 8 éxéXNevoev aviptavta ypucovy Ta Aicwr@ avateOfvas.
c. XXXil.
TRANSLATION OF ARAMAIC TEXT
i ers Ahikar was his name, a wise and erudite scribe, who
instructed his son...... He said: The son will be...... for me
before...... Ahikar, the Great Seal of Sennacherib, King of As-
By Tldseccin and there was no son to me...... and Sennacherib, king
3 of Assyria, had fulfilled (his days) and Sennacherib died...... his
son, named Hsarhaddon, and he was king of Assyria in the place
15 of his father (Sennacherib)...... Assyria. Thereupon I took (my
son)......and I instructed him and virtue......in the palace along
WIN: ve. I presented him before Esarhaddon, the king of Assyria.
And wisdom...... what he had asked him. And thereupon Esar-
haddon, the king of Assyria, loved him and said, (long) life (to
Ahikar) the wise scribe, the counsellor of all Assyria, who has
appointed as his son, and no son......and I bowed down and
worshipped, I, Ahikar, before Esarhaddon (the king) of Assyria.......
Ahikar, and when I saw the face of Esarhaddon, the king of
Assyria, favourably, I rose up (and said, as 1 was before) Senna-
chenib thy father, who was king (before thee)
I shall not be able to serve (the king) in the gate of this palace......
whose name is Nadin, my grown-up son, and he shall succeed me
as Secretary,...... and Great Seal shall he be; and also my
wisdom...... the king of Assyria. And he said to me, (like thyself
shall he be) and in thy stead shall he do thy work....... I went to
‘my house...... and I set him in the gate of the palace......and
I said, he will seek after that which is good...... (my son Nadin)
whom I have brought up, think on...... the king Sennachenib, thy
TRANSLATION OF ARAMAIC TEXT 169
father...... he is wise and according to his advice...... will much
disquiet the king. Listen...... as a son, who is not my son; as
a son
Answered (Esarhaddon) the king and said...... whom my father iv. 1
hath made great, who (ate) the bread of my father...... thou wilt
seek, where thou canst find...... that old man Ahikar. He is a
wise secretary...... whether he can corrupt the country against us,
after that...... Assyria; he attached to him two men, in order to
S€€...... that officer(?) Nabusumiskun, riding upon a swift horse......
with him after yet three days...... and the others who were with
him, as I was walking in the vineyards. Nabusumiskun, the
officer, rent his garment, and lamented...... the wise Secretary and
master of good counsel who...... by whose counsel and words all
Assyria was directed...... (Nadin, thy son) whom thou hast ap-
pointed at the gate of the palace, he hath undone thee...... Then 9
was I much afeard, even I Ahikar: and I answered and said to
Nabusumiskun......[ am he who aforetime saved thee from
undeserved death, (when Sennacherib) the father of the present
king, Esarhaddon, (was angry) with thee...... I brought thee to my
house; thither was I bringing thee ; ; :
(I treated thee) as a man treats his brother, and I hid thee from
the presence of (king Sennacherib); I said, I have killed him,
until at another time, and after yet many days I presented thee
before king Sennacherib, and caused thy sins to pass away before
him; and no evil did he to thee. And with me also king
Sennacherib was well pleased, because I had preserved thee alive
and not slain thee. And now do thou also to me in the same 10
fashion as I did to thee. Slay me not, but bring me into thy
house until other days. King Esarhaddon is merciful as one......
towards another. He will remember me and will long for my
advice. Thou wilt then present me before him, and he will
suffer me to live. Thereupon answered Nabusumiskun and said
to me, Fear not. Thou shalt live, Ahikar, the father of all
Lj; As Y
170 TRANSLATION OF ARAMAIC TEXT
Assyria, according to whose counsel Sennacherib and all the
Assyrian army were wont to make war. Nabusumiskun, the
officer, spake to those two men, his companions, who were with
him: (Listen to me) and I will give you a piece of advice, and it
is good advice too. The two men answered and said to him, Tell
it us then. And NabuSumiskun answered and said to them,
Listen to me. Yonder is Ahikar, a great man. He is the Great
Seal of Esarhaddon. According to his counsel and word is
the whole army of Assyria governed. Do not let us kill him.
There is a eunuch that I have, and whom I will give you. He
must be killed in the mountain; he shall be a substitute for
Ahikar...... other people (may come and) see the body of yonder
Ahikar, for the body of the young man, the eunuch whom I have
(with me, is like to the body of Ahikar)...... until our brother
Ksarhaddon (shall have regret) over our brother and the heart of
Ksarhaddon (shall change concerning him). I will give you much
treasure...... and the soul (of the officer) was content, with his two
11 companions. (And they said), Do as thou counsellest...... There-
upon they slew the aforementioned eunuch in the stead of
12 Ahikar...... At that time the report was made in the king’s palace,
(and they said) to the king, He hath been slain. Thereupon
Nabusumiskun (brought me to his house) and he caused to be
supplied to me there (meat and drink), and said, Let these things
13 be furnished to my lord (Ahikar). Likewise he brought much
treasure (and gave it to his two companions). Thereupon Nabu-
Sumiskun, the officer, went to Esarhaddon, the king of Assyria, and
informed him, saying, I went my way (as thou didst command me)
and I found Ahikar (walking in his vineyards), and I have put
him to death. And do thou, O king, enquire of the two men
whom thou didst appoint. So spake he (to king Esarhaddon),
until that Esarhaddon believed his words.
(FRAGMENTS OF THE SAYINGS AND
PARABLES OF AHIKAR)
What is stronger than a braying ass?......
The son who is instructed and disciplined, and who has on his
Do not withhold thy son from beating, if thou......
My son, if I beat thee, thou diest not. And if I leave on thy
Watch carefully over thy mouth...... and make thy heart slow(?),
for the word spoken is like a bird, and he who utters it is like a
man without...... the craft of the mouth is mightier than the craft
Otte:
Do not conceal (?) the word of a king
They deal with trees by fire, with flesh by a knife, and with
MAR aaa:
Let not thy heart rejoice in the multitude of children, and over cf.
sere
their fewness (be not thou discouraged). ue
The king is as a merciful man, also his voice is higher than No. 34.
that of him who stands before him......
Cf. Syr.
45, 46, etc.
Cf, Syr.
8. 5.
172 FRAGMENTS OF THE SAYINGS AND
The king is fair to look on as the sun, and for them that walk
the earth, his adornment is costly
(My son), I have lifted sand, and I have carried salt, but there
was nothing heavier than......
I have lifted straw and handled (?) the plough...... and there was
nothing lighter than the man who dwells in
The panther met the goat, and it was naked; And the panther
answered and said to the goat, Come and I will cover thee with
my skin.
The goat answered and said to the panther, Why...... my skin ?
Take it not from me.
The wolf came to the lambs (?)...... and I will be silent. The
lambs answered and said, Take what thou wantest from us......
Nothing lies in a man’s power, to lift up his foot or to set it
(Do not bend) thy bow and shoot an arrow at the upright, lest
God should....... and cause it to return upon thyself......
(Thou hast bent) thy bow and shot thy arrow at one who is
more righteous than thou. That is a sin against our God.
A loan is heavy, and borrow thou not from a man...... and
if thou contractest a loan, give thy soul no peace until......
Scam in thine ears, for the charm of a man in his trustiness, and
his hatred is lyimg with his lips (?).
The son of my body has spied out my house...... he has told
strangers......
He has become a false witness against me, and who now will
declare my righteousness ?
With him that is higher than thyself (do not be familiar ?)
with him that is stronger...... than thyself, do not......
PARABLES OF AHIKAR 178
eee and be not insolent to thy father.
The thorn-bush sent to the pomegranate and said: .
The thorn-bush to the pomegranate. How numerous are thy
thorns for him who handles thee!
The pomegranate answered and said to the thorn-bush: Thou
art all thorns for him who handles thee.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND
TURKISH TEXTS
By F. C. CONYBEARE.
I. ON THE AGE OF THESE VERSIONS.
In the Introduction to the First Edition, p. lxxxi, it was stated
that the date of the Armenian Version is hard to ascertain; it
was only certain that it was much earlier than the year 1500, the
date of the oldest Armenian MS., inasmuch as that MS. shewed
a text that must have had a long history. In the absence of
similar testimony I hesitated to regard as an echo of Ahikar
a passage of a late fifth century author, Lazar of Pharb, who,
writing of the heretics of his nation from Amid in Mesopotamia,
quotes the saying, “ Her that married a swine, befits a bath of
sewer water.” This recalls the adage No. 24 towards the end of
the Wisdom of Khikar: “Son, they took the swine to the bath,
and he plunged into it, then rolled in the bog, saying: You wash
in your own, and [ will in mine.”
But in the History of Lazar (ed. Venice 1891, p. 200) occurs
a still clearer reminiscence as follows:
“ We have defiled the raiment in which at holy baptism thou
didst clothe us by washing of the font, by our impure iniquity we
have rolled ourselves in the mire of denials like troops of swine.”
In the first of these passages Lazar professes to derive his
adage from the work of “a fabulist,” to the exclusion of the
hypothesis that he had in mind 2 Peter 11. 22, where a “true proverb”
is cited which runs: ts Aovoauevy eis KvALTuOY BopBopov. He
would surely have then alluded to his source as holy writ, if he
had taken it from St Peter.
A yet clearer indebtedness to the “Wisdom” is revealed by
another fifth century writer, Elisaeus, who in his History of the
wars of Wardan (Venice ed. 1889, p. 13) has the following:
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS 175
_ A blind man is bereft of the rays of the sun and ignorance is
bereft of perfect life. It is better to be blind of eye than blind of
toind.
This is textually the same as No. 51 of the Aphorisms of the
“ Wisdom.”
Another Armenian author of the fifth century is Eznik, who in
his work against heresies (ed. Venice, 1850, p. 61) has the following :
And of a troth the word of the wise man was in no wise vainly
uttered to the effect that a slave who hearkens not through his ear,
is made by them to hearken through his back.
The citation is virtually exact, except that the word back 1s
differently rendered. Eznik cannot possibly echo here Proverbs
xxix. 19, or Sirach xxx. 25, 27; there is too great a dissimilarity.
We must conclude therefore that the “wise man” who uttered
the saying was Ahikar. The only doubt possible is whether
Eznik, who in the context is plagiarising from Methodius, does
not also derive the adage at second hand from some anonymous
writer. But the close agreement with our current texts of Ahikar
militates against this hypothesis.
In the ninth century Thomas Artsruni [ed. Petersburg, 1887,
p. 228, bk. 11, ch. 20) cites aphorism No. 10 of Ahikar quite
exactly (“with one that is without fear go not on a journey”)
and characterises the author of the saying in contrast with the
Psalmist David as “an alien (or gentile) sage.”
In the eleventh century Aristakes of Lastiwert (History, ch. 10,
Venice ed. 1844, p. 41) cites textually aphorism No. 17, as
follows: “The words of lars are fat as the quail, but they that are
foolish swallow them down.”
It is only when we reach the twelfth century that the author
of the Aphorisms is named as Khikar or Ahikar by the Patriarch
of Sis (c. 1165), Nerses the Graceful. The Fabulist of the thirteenth
century, Wardan of Aygek, who began to form the collection
(edited by Prof. N. Marr of Petersburg) about the year 1220 in the
convent of Drazark, was also familiar with Ahikar, and often
imitates his aphorisms and apologues,.
176 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
The Armenian may therefore be confidently regarded as a
version of the fifth century; and if it be a rendering from the
Syriac, then the latter must be of still earlier date.
IJ. DOUBLE RECENSION AND SOURCES
OF THE ARMENIAN TEXT.
The Armenian text of Recension A is printed in this edition
from the following three codices, viz. :
1. Venice, Library of San Lazaro, No. 482, written in bolorgir
or large cursive, on parchment, without date, but of the late 15th
or 16th century. Called in my apparatus criticus Venetus or Ven.
2. Bodleian Library, Armenian e. 14, on paper, in a rare form
of notergir or notary’s hand. The first leaf has been partly torn
out. Probably of the early 17th century. In app. crit. Bod.
3. Paris, Anciens Fonds Armen. Suppl. No. 58. On paper in
notergir and ill-written in a.D. 1697. The text begins at fol. 253,
but breaks off soon after the first series of precepts is ended. In
app. crit. 58.
Of this recension we have a fairly old witness in the old
Turkish text, given in Codex 468 of the Mekhitarist Monastery in
Vienna. This was written, in a large regular cursive,in A.D. 1575
at Kamenitz in Poland; Ahikar occupies folios 538b-62a. The
translation was probably made in the Crimea about the year 1500.
The text is written phonetically in Armenian characters, which
I have transliterated in Roman ones. I have to thank Father
Barnabas for making me a copy of it, and Prof. D. 8S. Margoliouth
and Mrs A. 8. Beveridge for aiding me in my translation of it.
In addition to the three MSS. of the A Recension enumerated
above, I consulted for it in certain passages other codices, viz. :
1. Paris, Bibl. Nat. Anc. Fonds Arm. No, 131. In this
Ahikar occupies foll. 218-228. It is written on paper in a loose
notary’s hand in a.D. 1673. In app. cri. 131.
2 Paris, Bibl. Nat. Anc. Fonds Arm. No. 69. A large
quarto, well written in large cursive in Poland, on paper in
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS 177
A.D. 1614. The text omits the prelude and begins with the
precepts. In app. crit. 69.
3. Paris, Bibl. Nat. Anc. Fonds Arm. No. 92, on paper.
This contains only the last half of Ahikar. In a peculiar hand,
and dated 1619. In app. crit. 92.
4, Edjmiatzin, Codex No. 2048 of the new catalogue, a small
well written codex in small cursive of about 1600. I compared
this only as far as the 18th precept of the A Recension. In app.
crit. Edjm.
5. Bodley Canon. Orient. 181. See below. In app. crit.
canon.
Beside the above codices I have examined the British Museum
codices Orient. 4548, 4580, 6798, 6987 ; but found nothing new in
them.
There is a second Recension B of the Armenian version, best
given of all the codices I have examined in these two:
6. Bodley, MS. Canonic. Orient. 131; written on paper at
Ispahan in A.D. 1697 by Hazrapet the Priest for the use of one
Israel, in large clear cursive.
7. Bodley, Arm. g. 9. This is a MS. of small form, of vellum,
in a large clear bolorgir, written by Kirakos the Presbyter for one
Joseph who paid for it “out of his honest earnings,” in the year of
the Armenians 1121 (= 4.D. 1671), on the 26 of the month Varam
or Haram. The Armenians of Julfa near Ispahan used the month
Aram, and it answered to Dec. 16—Jan. 15.
Of this second recension I have not printed the original text;
though I give an English rendering of it, for it is necessary in
order to complete the Armenian evidence. It is best given and
in the purest language, in Bodley, Arm. g. 9. This recension is
often nearer to the Syriac than the other; but it adds a mass of
precepts not to be paralleled in other versions. In the Venice
MS. 482 similarly some eight pages of aphorisms are added at
the end of those of the first series; but I cannot say if they are
identical with those of Bodley, Arm. g. 9: probably not, as the two
codices contain different recensions.
L. A, Z
178 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
Ill. INTERRELATIONS OF THE TWO
ARMENIAN RECENSIONS.
I feel that my method of editing calls for some justification ;
for it may be asked why I have printed only the first recension
and not the second. I have done so, because—in spite of the
superior closeness to the Syriac of the second recension towards
the close of the book—the order of aphorisms in the first recension
proves that it preserves better than the other the characteristics
of the archetype from which all the versions—Armenian, Slavonic,
and Syriac—flow. ‘The following tables illustrate this. In them
each particular aphorism is throughout indicated by its serial
number in the Armenian Recension A. Roman figures indicate
additional aphorisms wanting in this Armenian Recension A, but
present in B or in one of the other versions. The Roman numeral
merely indicates the place occupied by the aphorism it symbolises
in one or the other of these three series of B, Slavonic and Synac ;
and whereas an Arabic numeral indicates in all four columns the
same aphorism, a Roman one does not. Thus No. xvi of A is the
same aphorism as No. xxv of the Synac series; and in the later
series of aphorisms with which the story ends, No. vill of
B=Syr. 1x; xv of B=Syr. XxXIv, and so on.
FIRST TABLE OF COMPARISON OF THE FIRST OR LONGER
SET OF APHORISMS.
Armenian Armenian
A Slavonic Syriac A B Slavonic Syriac
1 tla la, 16 la 11 1006 10¢ 5
2 16 2 le 12 48 11 6
$ 2 III 16 13° Ag XIII 9
4 45a 45 2 14 14a xIV 10a
5 456 4, 5 39 15 146 12 106
6 4 8 3 16 XxvI l4a 10¢
cb 36 9? 45a, 17° AVI 146 11, 97
8 8 10a 456 18 17a XVIII 13
9 9 Ix 4 19 176 16 XIX
10 10a 106 r| 20 18 no .2 Xx
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
Armenian
A
30
33
B
48a
19
20, 21
22a,
226
KXVI
34, 35
36
37
38
386
26
4]
40
27
526
52
51
50, 73¢
XL
XLI
XLII
XLITI
606
XLV
66
67
28
30
31
32
49 ?
88
70
71
39
LVII
72
LIX
53
61?
74
Slavonic
17
18a
186
19
21
22a
226
23
KXIX
24
25
26
27
28
Syriac
12
XXII
l4a
146
XXV
7
18, 78
19
20, 21
22a
22.6
23
41
42
85
43
44a
XXXVIII
47
64.
Armenian
A
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
i
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
B
LXIII
55
LKY
56
LXVII
57
456
LXX
24
76
LXXII
78
707, 68?
69a
69 b
24
25
26
27
59
79
LKXXIV
LKXXV
80
83
84
85
xc
xXCI
90a
906
91
KCV
89
XCVII
XCVIII
XCIXx
90?
92a
926
92¢
Slavonic
LXIII
LXIV
74
1D
LXV
LXVI
55
57
58
59
79
60
27
LXXVI
80
62?
83
84
80
25
8I
LKXXIV
LKXXKV
LXXXVI
LEXXVII
67
85
179
Syriac
LXIII
28
83
LXVI
80a
28, 8la
816
38
82
LXXII
LXXIII
LKXIV
LXXV
84
26
27
180 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
SECOND COMPARATIVE TABLE OF THE LATER OR SECOND
SET OF APHORISMS.
Armenian
B Slavonic Syriac
1 1 1? 1
2 2 2 2
3 8 9 7
4 9 10 8a
9) 10 18 9
6 17 17 10
7 126 15 18
8 vit (=Syr. 1x) Vil 126
9 15 1X Ix
10 10 25 17
1 | 6 20 15
12 14a XII (=Syr. xxx) XII
13 14e XIII (=Syr. Xxx1) 126
14 146 XIV (=Syr. XXXII) XIV
15 Xv (=Syr. xxIv) 22 11
16 12a 16 XVI
17 20 23 XVII
18 XVIII (=Syr. XXX1) XVIII (=Syr. xXXIx) 19
19 XIX (=Syr. XXXII) XIX (=Syr. Xt) 24
20 XX (=Syr. XXXIII) xx (=Syr. X11) 6
21 4 27 l4a, ec, b
22 246 XIE
23 25 XXIII
24 16 XXIV
25 26¢ 12
26 26a 13
27 27 20
21
XXIX—XXXIII
4
22
25
16
23
XXXIX (226 a)
XL~XLII
26 b
27
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS 181
Glancing at the first of the above tables we note that the two
Armenian recensions agree in respect of the first 22 precepts; and
they both agree with the Syriac in respect of these 22; though
the Syriac, after No. 23, suddenly jumps to 42. On the other
hand the Slavonic carries its agreement with Armenian A up to
45 and then jumps to 64.
What is the meaning of this? Surely that the archetype of
all the versions arranged the aphorisms in groups of 22, according
to the letters of an Aramaic or Jewish alphabet. The Slavonic
and Armenian A hand us down the first two alphabets complete :
the Slavonic, Armenian A and B, and the Syriac, conjointly hand
us down the second alphabet.
Again where two numbers follow one another in any two of
the three versions, we are certain that we have before us the
order of the archetype. Thus 45 follows 2 in Armenian B and in
Slavonic and follows 3 in Syriac; and Syriac and Armenian A
together testify to 64-69 as one block, just as all three versions
testify to 64-67 as one block. The Syriac (in spite of interpolated
precepts) witnesses to the Armenian block 50-59; and similarly
to the coherence on the whole of 41-47. Slavonic to the general
coherence of 80—85, and to that of 69-73, of 74-75, of 55-59.
And there are other coincidences which help to fix the original
sequence of the last half of the aphorisms: thus, in Slav. 73 a and
b precede 50, in Syriac 73 c precedes 501. In Arm. B and Slavonic
59 precedes 79. In Slav. we jump from 45 to 64, in Syniac from
47 to 64. From these coincidences we may infer that, in the
neighbourhood of 47, a third alphabet began with 64 and continued
as far as 73, then followed 50-59, then 79 followed, perhaps by
80-85, though this is less certain.
Several of the aphorisms lacking in Armenian A, yet given in
Armenian B recur in the other versions; thus A XvI = Syr. xxv,
A XXvI= Slav. xxix; A xL=Slav. xcv1; A xLI=Slav. xcv1; these
and many other examples of the kind shew that the B Recension
of the Armenian is needful to supplement the other. The Syriac
often agrees closely with it, especially in the later part of the story.
1 Also in Arm. B 50 precedes 73.
182 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
IV. RELATION OF ARMENIAN TO SYRIAC.
Indeed the agreement of the Armenian and Syriac is so close
as to warrant the conclusion that one is a translation of the
other. It is not easy however to decide to which the priority
belongs. If in its original form Aphorism, No. 9, of the Armenian
Recension A, ended thus: “make a path for thy feet,’ then the
Syriac: “for thy sons and for thy sons’ sons,” renders the corrup-
tion ordotz for otitz which arose within the Armenian tradition
and is actually found in Recension B. The reading of otvtz: “ for
thy feet,” stands in A, and is certainly the more natural reading ;
for the object in treading down the thorns while a man has his
boots on, is surely that he may be able to pass over them unscathed
another time when they are off, rather than to provide a path
for posterity. Again, there can be no doubt that the Armenian
best preserves the order of the archetype, and it is also the only
text which preserves the aphorism found mn the Aramaic text of
Hlephantine :
Son, rejoice not thou in the number of thy children, and in
their deficiency be not thou distressed.
But it may be argued that this precept once stood in the
Syriac and has disappeared from its tradition. In favour also of
the priority of the Syriac is the fact that it mentions Sarhadum
or Esarhaddon, father of Sennacherib, and preserves the name
Abusemakh, which the Armenian corrupts into Nabusmaq. Perhaps
the Syriac can be proved to descend from the Aramaic’. It may
be remarked that the Armenian codices sometimes have Nathan,
sometimes Nadan; they also use Seneqarim and Seneqerim
indifferently.
1 On the other hand, Esarhaddon may have been eliminated from the Armenian
hy an editor of the story who knew from Tobit and 2 Kings that Esarhaddon was
gon and not father of Sennacherib. It is significant that the Syriac inverts the
order of the Aramaic papyrus. The Slavonic equally omits Esarhaddon. The loss
of the first letter of the name Nabusmag in the Armenian may be due to a terminal
N of a Greek third person aorist preceding it, just as in Tohit xiv 10 is read
érolnocev "Addu by error for érolyce Naddp.
INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS 183
Another coincidence of the Armenian with the ancient Aramaic
is in Aphorism 10 of the second series: Son, thou hast been to me
like him that shot his arrow up to heaven; and he was not able to
reach thereto, but reaped the reward of his lawlessness, and the
arrow returned on his head. The Syriac has:
My son, thou hast been to me like a man that threw a stone
at the heaven, and it did not reach the heaven; but he incurred
sin against God.
The Arabic is similar.
The Slavonic has:
Thou hast been to me, O my son, like a man who shot an
arrow up to heaven. The arrow certainly did not reach heaven,
but the man was guilty of a sin.
Here the Aramaic runs:
“(Do not bend) thy bow and shoot an arrow at the upright,
lest God should...... and cause it to return on thyself.........
“(Thou hast bent) thy bow and shot thy arrow at one who 1s
more righteous than thou; that is a sin against our God.”
Here the Armenian alone reflects the Aramaic in full.
The names of the gods to whom Khikar prayed are, un-
fortunately, uot preserved in the Aramaic fragments, and stand in
the Armenian alone of all the versions. Dr Langdon has pointed
out to me that the first two are titles of a Babylonian deity which
among the Syrians would quite naturally be hypostatised as
separate deities. Thus Bélshim means = Bel—establish and fix
(the fate); Shimuil is Shim-aili, ze. Fix the fate, Oh God. Shamuin,
which in the Turki Version is read as Shahmil, may be a corruption
of Shamshim, the oblique case of Shamash.
The Slavonic and Armenian versions frequently join hands
across the Syriac, and the Slavonic and Syriac across the Armenian.
Thus the Turki version, which represents an old stage of Recension
A, omits with Slavonic the sixty wives of Ahikar together with
their sixty palaces at the beginning of the story. In the same
context they both have the phrase: “nor daughter to bewasl hum.”
On the other hand, the Slavonic and Syriac agree in the same
184 INTRODUCTION TO THE ARMENIAN AND TURKISH TEXTS
context against the Armenian in use of the phrase: cast dust on
my eyes; and in adding in the first precept the comparison of
a secret divulged to a hot and burning coal. In order to the
restoration of the archetype a careful comparison of all the versions
would be necessary, and in such a comparison the text preserved
by two sources together against a third must be admitted to be
the more original.
The presence of Syriac idioms in the Armenian, eg. “the son
of a poor man” in the sense simply of “a poor man,” make it
certain that the priority belongs to the Syriac. At the same
time the Armenian text is mdispensable for the reconstruction
of the Syriac.
OLD TURKISH TEXT
(Transliterated from the Armenian characters)
« =a short as in can =m
F = J =y
a % =n
= 2: sh
q =Z » =0_ short
& =e 2 =ch asin church
£ =& long as in bane or sane “ =b
pe =u_ short 2 =dsch
/? =th as in this « =rh arolledr
a =] =< cag
pb =i L=w
’ i = “a3 —d
/ =kh inclining to gh p =r
+ = ds J = tz
4 =¢g -~ =v except in diphthongs
§ =h # =f inclining to bh
4 =ts |
4 =y asoft g °o =6 long
“a = dj ax = 00
I. Qosloo Khikarning sozoo asi akhulu. Aytqanu day ogoodoo,
qi ogootlangaylar adam déylanlar. Day atay dyloonay égoodbargay,
da asinay algaylar:
TI. Asqi torayday khanlar Wakhtunay Sanagarim atlu khan
baradi Ninoo& germaningday asoresdanung: Man Khikar oosloo.
4. eashinay boldoom. khatoon aldum. 6yool khuz bolmadu
mangay :
L, A. AA
186 OLD TURKISH TEXT
III. Pardum thangrim alnunay. day gob doorloo khoorban
ettim khaytub chéqtum allarunay day ayttum :
IV. ay manim Ayaylarim day thangrilarim. «. ining atuy
Belshim adi. ¢. inchising atuy Shilim adi. oochoonchoosoong atuy
Shahmil adi. booyooroongooz day mangay ar dyool baringiz. qi
éshtay Khikar tirilay’ élmiyir :
V. Na aytgaylar adam déylanlaru, qi Khikar oosloo djardar
oldi. day éyul bélmadu qi anu qémgay idi. day malun mangar-
gayadi. drool bélgiyadi day koonday + khantar altun tas atqeyadi
bélmasadi manim malumnu toogat magay :
VI. Auyool bélgiyadi qi ¢ khdéloo bilay oosdoomay théfrak
salgayadi. taq mangay ~ éyool yishadag bolgiyadi.
VII. Aul sahat mangay awaz boldoo thangnilarimdan. day
ayttuylar. Khikar booyoorgan dur qi sangay déyool bélgay. san
khardashungnung dyloon al sangay éyool sakhlagaysan day dstoor-
gaysan anu. sandan songray saning droongay.
VIII. Qi ishittim man boo awaznu thangrilarimdan aldum man
khardashum éyloon « eashinay. gqiydirdim anu toorloo toorloo
qamkhaylar ichinay day saldum boyoonay altun zndjul nachiq
khan éyloonoong ichirdim anuy barchay sooth bilay, day khaymakh
bilay day chiy balbilay :
IX. Day eookhlaturadim anu kharay khooshnoong day
qoochgoorchinning mokhoondan eastukhlar oostoonay. angar
diray gi bdldoo & eashinay: Moondan songray bashladum
angar éwratmagay bithiqni 4sni oo akhulni, dooneayning bilma-
khun. qimlargi eakhshilkhgay ootroodoor alargay djooab oo
s0z:
X. koondooz oo qachay tiyilmadim éwratmakhtan‘ thoy-
doordoom anuy as oo akhul bilay, nachiq qimasay soowdan day
dthmaqtan toygay.
XI. Tayuday moondan songray oondadi khan khatunay. day
ayttu alay qi oosloo Khikar qériyir man sani qi khartayupsan.
sandan songray qim toogal lsar djardarlkh bilay, day& ooakhul
bilay manim khanlkhumnung geragin. man asruy khayyooriyir-
man boo ishtan :
OLD TURKISH TEXT 187
XII. Ayttum khanum. san khayyoorma bardur manim 6yloom,
qi dayu djardar, oosloo day akhullu tur mandan asay.
XIII. ayttuy khan galtir alnuma gi goriyim. geltirtim day
tooryoozdum khannung alnunay.
XIV. gordoo khan day biyandi. day ayttu qi alyshlu bélgay
boo éylannung koonlari. gi Khikar kendining tirlikhinay toor-
yoozdoo éyloon alnnmay, qendi tunchlkhtay bélgay :
XV. Andan songra eoogoondoom khanumay aldum éyloonini,
day bardum Palatsumay. bootoorloo aytur adim déwratqan day
Nadan atluy éyloomay :
1. Auyloom, Na qi ishitsang khan biy ashiqmay, anu eoora-
qingay toot, kimsaygay achma. baylimi mohoorlini cheshmay.
chashganni baylamay. day néqi ishitsang alani atmay day ayt-
magin.
2, Auyloom kézoong achup qérqloo khatun kérsang kiyimishh
day bazowloo. bolmagay qi angar sookhlangaysan. agar tirligingni
barchasunday barsang, azgnay sookhlanganung boloor, edkhasay
alursan thangridan nalatlamakh day adamlardan. anungoochoon
qi khatun kishi ékhshar « qérqloo kerezmangay. 61 kerezmannung
ichi té6loodur s6waqlar bilay day sasumakh bilay dloonoong :
3. Auyloom ékhshamay badam taraqinay, qi barchay teraq-
lardan booroon chichaglanir, day emishin barchay teraqlardan
songray barir, edkhasa éshkhay khabakhga, qi sényooday chichaq-
lanir, day emishin booroon barir.
4. Auyloom eakhshirakh asli adam bilay tash tashumay, neqi
assiz adam bilay charur ichmay.
5. Auyloom ashlar bilay assiz bélmay day Aszislar bilay asli
bolmay.
6. Auyloom djaht 4t akhulular bilay. akhulu bolmay nechiq
alar bolmagay qi anuzkamlargay day assiz adamilargay sungar
bolmagaysan. qi sani day 4ssiz anzkam oondagaylar :
7. Auyloom eakhshirakh chayurungnu téqqaysan neqi assizlar
bilay da anzkamlar ichgqaysan, qi bélmagay alar sani nalatlagaylar:
8. Auryloom bélmay asruy tatlu, qi sani iutqaylar. day ni
asru leyi, gi tooqoogaylar, edkhasay bd] ivach day tédzoomloo.
188 OLD TURKISH TEXT
barchay eachshikhlungan ungay, day eoorooganingay, da barchay
ishingay :
9. Auyloom nechayqi atiqing ayakhungay dur, basqun tegan-
agni, day e6l ach ayakhungay:
10. Auryloom, khédjay dyloo eilan edi, ayttuylar qi hakimliq
tir angar. earlunung eti asay, ayttuylar’ achlkhdan edi. anung
oochoon qi saning oolooshoongnoo egin. day khatunungnung.
sungarunay qéz khoymay, na malunay, na thangridan khorkhoosooz
adam bilay, na aldan oojalmas kishi bilay edlgay chkhmay, day na
éthmag tay emay anung qipigq bilay :
11. Auryloom qérsang dooshmanungu erkhulup tur qoolmay
day maskhara atmay anu. agar toorsay sangay eaman Adar :
18. Auyloom, sow athangnu day anangnu, qi thoyoordoo sani.
dalmagaysan alarnung kharyshun. zeray thangrining day athayn-
ung anaynung alyshry bir dir. nechiq al...alay kharyushi. qi
san sanday soowoongays ... ning dylanlarungdan :
12. Auyloom eam...eukhulur gandining mg eamaulkhunay
qoray. day eakhshi éyool toorar gendinmg eakhshilkhunay qéray :
13. Auyloom eoowookhlanmay eaman oo karsuz khatungay.
day pampasal atqaylar daymay sani. nalatlamakay day ayblamakay,
day dkhchangi egay. anung qibiqdan khach:
14. Auyloom, toowooshdan édgoottan ayamay édyloongnu. too-
wooshalaydur éylangay. nechiq bir gnoynoo eaygaysan bakhcha-
day, dayuday na doorloo mohoor khaznay oosnay. 61 Toorloo igi tir
towoosh oylangay. akarqi koonday « day ¢ day tayakh bilay dgoot-
lasay. andan ivashlanur, day andan élmas. agar khoydoong asay
dyloongnoo gendi Arqinay éyroo béloor. day altarlar anuy asmay
eay qasmay, day boloor sangay dlginchayjalhach asingdan qetmas.
15. Auyloom éwrat dyloongnoo achlkhqay day soosamakhgay,
qi éstamliq bilay qechirmagay qoonlarin qendining: Dooshman-
ungdan soz aytgaylar edbsoon magaysan, anungoochoon qi saning
genday angar aytarlar :
19. Auryloom dooshmanung bar asay, edldashsuz edlgay chkh-
may. bolmagay qi dooshmanung sakhlagay edloongnoo day san
warytsuz dlgaysan :
OLD TURKISH TEXT 189
22. Auyloom bolmagay qi aytqaysan. manim beyim Assis
dir, day man 4sliman. day san sani édggaysan. edkhasay tozgin
anung assisliqinay day oosloolargay eoowookhlangun san qi ézgaylar
sani 6ggaylar :
23. Auyloom hach qimsag...aman aytmay. da beyming
alnunay kob ... bolmay, qi adamlar alnunay’... magay sani:
24. Auyloom, khachan sadayay barsang earlunuy achutma.
barganing thangngay khapool toogooldoor :
25. Auyloom saymay khayyoonu. day euylamakhnu day
anchayday bazup barmay thoygay’ eay faragliqqay, zeray kdép
toorloo alnumuz gay édloom bar day kép toorloo fortsanq :
26. Auyloom, khaysigi althun eoochoog saning doogool, anuy
barmakhungay khoymay. day khaysi thén 6frakh saning doogool
anuy qiymay. da 6] at khaysiqi saning doogool atlaumay, qi
qooldqoo bolmagaysan :
27. Auyloom agar ach asang, day khaysi 6thmaq saning doo-
gool anuy emay soonmenchay :
28. Auyloom 6] adam qi sandan qoochloo door anung bilay
qoorash tootmay, day angar ootroo bélmay. bélmagay qi eukhup
sani dldoorgay :
29. Auyloom neqi eakhshi eaman ishitsang anuy eooraqingay
sakhlay. thangridan sangay eakhshi béloor. day artar sadning
tirliqing :
30. Auyloom agar éwoong beyiq oozoon asay. & khoolach
boyoongnoo 4gip kir:
31. Auyloom, almay ooloo dlchow bilay, day barmay kichi
dlehéw bilay. day aytmay qi aslam attim anungqini thangri
arturmas. day éch ashir day san ach tas béloorsan :
32. Auryloom, eaylan ant ichmay, qi koonlarung agqsilmagay,
eaylanchining koonlari aqsilir:
33. Auyloom, thangrinin boorookhoonay daymay khoolakh
khoy, day 4sqi dooshmandan khookhmay. thangrinin boorookhoo
eakhshi adamigay tash khalay dur:
34. Auryloom, oylarlarungnung kop bolganunay soowoonmay,
day aqsilganinay kop eiglamay day kob khayyoormay :
190 OLD TURKISH TEXT
35. Auyloom éylanlar oo mal thangrining barmakhi dur.
awatqi khodjay earlulanur. day earlu khodjaylanur. day asha-
khlangan beyiqlanir day beyiqlangan ashakhlanur :
86. Auyloom, agar sungarung khastaylansa, aytma qi na
alliyim angar. edkhasay bar ayakhung bilay khatunay, da gor
qézoong bilay, khastaynuy sorsang artukh tur althudan koomoosh-
dan asay qi bargaysan :
37. Auyloom earyooday olkoor sang érooch alma althun eay
indji. boo agirliq bilay qénoonoo agri atmay. edkhasay thorani
koénoo at, day qénoonoong khanun thdqtoorsangasay saning da
togarlar :
38. Auyloom, sakhlay tilingni eaman sozdan. kozoongnoo
eaman bakhmakhtan. achnemay day dyoorladung asay dloom bir
dir:
39. Auyloom ithq atmay sungarungnung khatunuy bilay.
songray Ozgaylarday saning sungarungay doosharlar, day élginchay
béloor sanga nalatlamay :
40. Auryloom bolmagay qi algaysan kendingay tool khatoonnoo
nogar: qim bilir araday nemay talash béldoodsay. 61 booroongi
ayasin angar’ da san khaylooroop koostoonoorsan :
41, Auyloom, agar qi sangay thangridan na toorloo fortsoothiun
edlookhdooasay, bolmagay qi eangulup djudjkoohal bolgaysan. qi
dayun eaman tunsuzlkh abarmagay. day wakhtsuz dooneaydan
qichirmagay. edkhasay na toorloo day thangridan kilsay shoo-
qoorloo bél, zeray shoogoorloo ayuz thangrini. 2’. borchloo atar:
42. Auyloom, sowmay dyloongnoo artukh khooloongdan asay.
bilmasan qi khansi geraq]i boloor sanga:
44, Auyloom taymay san saning asing bilay. eakhshi sayu-
shlamay. day khartlarnuy hérmatlay, qi hormat langaysan than-
gridan. day sanga eakhshi boloor:
46. Auyloom igit wakhtnay édqtam, qi igit wakhtungay tas
bolmagaysan :
47. Auyloom barmay sungarungay, qi ayakhunay basgay
bolmagay qi boynoongnoo da basqay :
48. Auyloom gimsay bilay earyoo alnunay toorsang. bolma
OLD TURKISH TEXT 191
gay qi eooraqlanip sozlagaysan, edkhasay neqi sozlasaylar, tatlulkh
bilay djooap bargaysan. boo earyoonoo anung oosnay eukharsan :
49. Auyloom agar thangridan nemay kholtkhay atsang. awal
anung booyrookhoo: tibinay bél day na bilay drooch bilay alysh
bilay, andan songray toogallar thangri kholtkhangnuy saning :
50. Auyloom, eakhshirakh tir qi atungnu daymay eakhshi
chkhargaysan. edkhasay qi sén sani qérq aytqaysan. thénlar
bilay. q6drq qachwloo dur eékhasay eakhshi at khalur mangi:
51. Auyloom eakhshirakh tur. sdkhoor qéz bilay. naqi sok-
hoor as bilay. sdkhoorlookh bilay’ tharchay 6wrauir eooroomakhnu
edloonoong. edkhasay sdkhoor 4s bilay, salur qonoo edlnoo day
barur gandi arqinay :
53. Auyloom eakhshirakh tur earlulkhnuy eymagay, neqi
khéajaylkhnu sachmagay : i
55. Auyloom targagin saning sozoongnoo eluraqing bilay, da
andan songray chkhar sozoongnoo ayzungdan. agar boo ashni boo
lay atsang, barchasunaytatlu boloorsan :
56. Auyloom, gimasaydan eaman soz ishitsang anuy iuraqingay
toot. &£. kharush. dleaman dlar, day eakhshilkhqay khaytar:
57. Aurloom, hach nemagay koolmay. ol qoolmakhtan talash
boloor. day ol oorooshdan dloom béloor :
58. Auyloom ealyan séz day ealyanchilkh alay alur dur.
nechiq khorgashin, az koondan songray eoyarny minar nechiq
tiraqning eaprakhuy :
59. Auyloom ayt saning kichi sayushungni dostoongay, agar
ol sining sayushungnuy alani atmasay. boloor san angar ooloo
sagushungnuy day aytmagay, da anuy inamli qénoo dést boloorsan
tootmagay.
60. Auyloom, daymay bolooshoochi bél khaulay beylar alnunay
saning qrisdanliqingay. soz bilay dayakhchay bilay. alay toot qi
anuy, aslannung ayzundan khootkharusan. da ol sangay kaybat
dur da farhq:
61. Auyloom agar dooshmanung kelsay ayakhungay béshatlkh
kholmay. bdéshat angar, day iuraqing bilay qool. day thaning
bilay faraklan. day eopsoon anuy:
192 OLD TURKISH TEXT
62. Auyloom khayday sani oondamasaylar hormatlap. anday
barmayday kimasay sandan soz sormasay. anday djooap barmay.
day ol akhun soowqibagq. boozlamiyir. anchayday bazup iuroomay
ayakhnng bilay. bdlmagay qi wakhtsuz tas bélgaysan :
66. Anyloom, sunagin oylarlarungu achlkh bilay, day soosa-
makh bilay, day misqinliq bilay day 4sqi bazukh thdénlar bilay.
agar tozoomloo asay, bar tirligingni kholoonay :
67. Auyloom khachan sani garggay oondaysalar. eay toygay.
djahd at barchay sungarungdan booroon chkhqaysan. da eanay
f inchi barmagaysan. thangridan eakhshiatalursan. day towoosh
almasan bashungay :
70. Anyloom agar earlu asang nay sungarlarung arasunay
alani atmay. qi ayblanmagaysan day sowoongay day khoolakh
khoymazlar :
74, Auyloom, saning surungnn eapookhoongnoo khatunungay
achmay. anung oochoon qi khatun kirchi sur sakhlamas tur.
alani atar khartashlarnnay ooroosh qéqoonay. day sani tabay-
larlar:
75. Anyloom ichgili dlsang, sakhlay tilingni kép sozlamakhtan.
sangay eakhshi boloor day oosloo oondalirsan :
76. Auyloom qimsagay alasang tirliqingni barmagay. bithiq-
siz mohoorsooz tanukhsnz barmay, barding asang tanar, day san
khayyooroop gayifsinirsan tirliqingni.
77. Auyloom eakhshi dosdoongdan eirakhlanmay. agar eir-
akhlan‘ dungasay eay taparsan anung qi dosd eay tapmasan :
79. Anyloom eakhshirakh tur qi saning tirliqing dyoorlangay
neqi oostoongay d6yoorlookh tapoolgay :
80. Anyloom gqimgay qi thangri barip dir 6san anny hdérmat-
lay, day khartlarnny qérsang bor. qoong chkhar day toor ayakhung
oosnay anung alnunay, day slylay anuy :
81. Auyloom barlu tirligh adamgay fakhillig atmay eayakahlkh.
akah kishining kézoon nemay thoydoormas, taq thdéfrakh:
82. Anyloom khunamkhéslookh atmay, zeray eakhshilkh oo-
tirliqg oo mal thangridan dir. day earlnlkh keldi asay, araday
eoorooganni sdgarlar :
OLD TURKISH TEXT 193
84. Auyloom, euylay day barmay déstoong 6éwinay girip
chkhmay. songray adjuzlanup sogarday sani:
85. Auyloom it qi salgay kendi ayasin day artungdan kelgay,
tash al day oor, qi artungdan kelmasin :
86. Auyloom, eakhshikhlungan adam, day aroow iuraqtan
alyshetqan. khabool dur thangrigay. da ooyattan khorkh nechiq
thangridan
87. Auyloom, eaman sayushday iuraqgaychkhgan asqi doosh-
man tur. day tozoomlooq foondoomanti dur kharlarunung. day
baqligi dir dinning.
89. Auyloom sow qénoolookhnoo day ealyaunu hach at. day-
may khoolakh khoy thangrining booyrookhoonay, day aski doosh-
mandan khorkhmay. thangrining booyrookhoo eakhshi adamigay
tash khalay dur: |
90. Auyloom eaman oo ealyauchi adamidan khach, zeray
akahlkh day barchay eaman nemay ealyauchilkhtan thoyar.
91. Auyloom earyoonoo sowmay agar ootsang agar outmasang
dooshmanungnu. awatosi thangrining earyoosoondan khorkh :
92. Auyloom gimqi qénoo dir asi bilay earlkhluy goonash tir,
day qim qi échashir iuragi bilay. day dpqay soowar saykhlamay,
61 adam tamookhnoong kharamyoolookhoonay okhshar. day qim
aroow achukh qdéngoolloo door, 61 adam sadayachi dir, day qim qi
akah dir, agar barlu asay day 4ssiz dir:
93. Auyloom djmrining oowoonay girmay. qirsang day qa-
chiqmay, zeray tirliqingdan bésh béloorsan:
94. Auyloom sungarungnuy pambas, atmay, agar eirakh tun
agar eoowookhdun, zeray eaman soz tarchay day tabindan etar, day
alarnung arasunay talash boloor :
95. Auyloom thangri booyqooroop tur chayurnu farahliq oo-
choon. eokhasay eaman erday, qeraqsiz erday eakhshirakh tur
nemay eaman ichgaysan neqi ichqi:
95a. Auyloom 61 toorloo dir asirigqadam, na toorloo qi ékhqir-
gay boornoonoong ichinay. dzgagay tiymaytaq qandining taba-
sinay :
96. Auyloom djimri adam 6] toorloo sayushlar qandining 4si-
L. A. BB
194 OLD TURKISH TEXT
nay qi man bahatur man, day qachman day neqi sozlarman, akhul
oos bilay sozlar man, anu bilmas tir gi edlookhoor anung qibiq
ashi gach adamigay, qi toot qachéq khéloondan ergay oorar day
dldooroor :
97. Auyloom gérsang dooshmanungnu qi eatup tur, san anuy
khayyoor, anung oochan qi doot atarsan sangay, agar qi qooltqoo
atsang, toorsay sangay laman atar:
98. Auyloom asruy asiriq adam sayushlar gi er bir gasinay
aylanir. anuy bilmas bashi aylaniyir, zeray qi er dir barchay
emishlarning anasuy, 61 toorloo artukhsu ichmakh tur barchay
eamannung anasu. tit sinmiyin eamanlkhgay salur, day ear-
lyamiyin éldooroor adamini, day qildirir day ékhshatur djana-
wargay :
99. Auyloom khach adami oochoon iuq bolmakhtan. agar
eoog bol doong asay alay toot gi toosnakhungnu bardina angar.
agar wakhtunay barmading asay, sakhalungnu a w eookhiarlar :
100. Auyloom, ealyanchi bolmay. agar sani sahat ealyanchi
taptuylar asay, qénoo day sozlasang ealyanchi sayushlarlar day
inamaslar day barchay erday ealyanchi aytsarlar :
101. Khaytup Khikar ayttuy oosloolarung akhulun nadan-
gay, khardashu éyloonay. 7 psh bar gi adamning qozoonoong
earukhun arturur:
102. Awalgi bakhgayarday chichaqlar oosnay. e inchi ealan
aysi eooroogay eashil oosnay. % oonchi qi akhun soowday eooroo-
gay. oonchi edlchooularin gérqay eirakhtakilarin :
103. Khaytup 7 ishar gi adam dyloon semirtir. booroongi
kiyiuish. ¢ inchi eakhshi soz ishitaay daymay. # oonchi kendining
dylanlaruy bilay, day khoolkhootanu bilay. sdwéqloo tirilgay :
104. 4 oonchi nemay eaman soz ishitsay ishitmamish bolsoon:
105. Eanay 7 ish bar qi adam oyloo qendinay hérmat kiltirir
daymay* eakhshi sozoo, misqinlit atqani, day aqsiq sozlagani, day
ooyalganuy ooloodan kichidan:
106. Khaytub 7 ish bar qi adamnung eoozoonoong soowoon
getarir. booroongi qi ashukh bolgay eaman khatungay. ¢ inchi
qi qop sozlagay. day aytqay qi manim qibiq qimasay sozlamay
OLD TURKISH TEXT 195
bélmas dabilmas. ¢ oonchi qi eakhshilarnung sozoo arasunay
qirgay. day ooroop boozgay. 4% inchi qi eakhshilarnung sozoo
arasunay girgay. day ooroop boozgay. ¥ inchi qi aytgay. bilir
man. day ealyau sozlagay :
107. Eanay sortoolar oosloo Khikargay, qi na dir dooneaday
tattuy: Ayttuy Khikar. eooznung ooyatuy: Qimning eoozoonoong
ooyatuy bar, 61 tatlu: dur, zeray qi barchay nemay garsuzlkhtan
théyar.
108. Boo adi manim é6gootoom, khaysiqi man khikar ayttum
manim khardashum déyloonay nathangay: Day man bilmadim
ménim édgootoomnoo hach attiday tozdoordoo nechiq théfrakhnu
elgay ootroo:
109. Bashladuy eamanlamay khangay, day barchay malumnu,
khaznamnuy, tirligimni bashladuy tas atmagay, khoollarumnu
dltoormagay, kharavazlarumnuy ooyatlamay. anchay gi manim
apasdan atlu khatunumay day khél salmayqladi, qi anu gichidan
dstoordoo da asga kiltirdi:
110. Boo ishlarni atqandan songray mangay, bardum man
khanumay day anglattum nadannung eamanlkhun, soordoom day
getardim khatumdan. da ayttum, dayun saning arging edkhtoor
manim tirligimay :
111. Dayu eaman bashladuy mani khangay eamanlamay,
anchay qi bashumay kiltirdi qi khan booyoordoo qi aldingiz day
gesingiz khikarnu :
112. Day 61 kishilar day djalatlar manim tooch 6tmaqimni
oonootmaduylar, chéqoop day khéltkhay attim day ayttum. bar
dur manday « adam mangay okhshash day dloomloo ish Atip tir.
anung bashun gesingiz manim oochoon day mani sakhlanguz geraq
bolgay man » koon manim khanumay :
118. Khikarnu sakhladuylar day kichini gestilar :
114. Khangay khabar barduy qi Khikar kesildi, aséresdan
ooloosoo khayyoogay tooshdoo.
115. Qettilar ooloostan day faravon khangay barindilar. ishitti
faravon khan qi Khikar gesildi.
116. Oolooalchilar eberdi Sanaqaram khangay, qi eber mangay
196 OLD TURKISH TEXT
anung qi adam qi naqi sorsam djooap bargay. day na toorloo
adam qi oosloo day akhulu bolgay qi na toorloo awadanlkh aytsam
mangay toozgay :
117. Senagaram khan oondatti ooloo beylarin da samattu
bithiqna: Ayttny khan da boo ishqay gim djoowap barir:
118, Ayttuylar khanum qimasay bélmas boo ishgqay djooap
barmay, taq nadan gi khikardan 6wrandi barchanuy :
119. Oondatti khan nadannu, day ayttu bédloormisan boo
ishqay djooap barmay. ayttuy nadan man doogool edkhasay manim
qi « day bélsay, bé6lmas moungar djooap barma:
120. Andan songray khan gayifsindi khikarnu quendining
beylari bilay khorkhoop faravon khandan, qi ooloo dscheroow bilay
qilmagay oosnay :
121. Da ayttu sanagaram khan, gim gi mangay khikarmuy
tooryooysayadi, earum khanlkhumnu angar barir adim:
122. Keldi aboosmak atlu bey day attuy mangi tindir Khikar.
nechiq ayttuy barduy day keltirdi thazindan Khikarni, da toor-
yooztoo khaunung alnunay, day Khikar dloochirayin alup ati:
123. Qértoo khan day asruy soowoondoo, day ayttuy alyshlu
dur thangri. gi boo goon khikarnuy dloodan tooryooztoo eberdi
anuy khan, qi bar arun, day eoowoon, day semir /& koonday diray
qeraqsan mangay:
124. Khachan qi & koondan songray geldim khan khatunay,
ayttuy khan. sanim (above line manim) alafumnuy ishittmgmi
mangay na 4lchilar eldi faravon khandan:
125. Ayttum khanum, man bariyim boyoom bilay da tooziyim
boo ishlarni. barchay barduy da toozdoo, day easasuy :
126. Day keldi ooloo soowoonchloog bilay day ooloo bash-
khshlar bilay faravon khandan, Senagaram khangay khan ootroo-
soonay chkhtu ooloo beylari bilay :
127. Khaytup keldilar kimlar khachup 4dilar ishittilar, qi
Khikar tiri dir:
128. Andan songray ayttuy khan, naqlarsan sangay barayim :
129. Attu khanum sandan nemayqlam ant&éq mangay khar-
dashum oyloon nadaunu bar:
OLD TURKISH TEXT 197
130. Khachan bardi mangay nadannuy. ayttum khooloomay.
baylamay stélpgay. anchakh dayun qopaytmakhtan songray, « soz
ayturadim, day khooloom khanchilaradi :
131. Ayttum édyloom thangrim manim sakhladuy mam, manim
anmeylkhum bilay, day sani tas atti. saning eamanlkhungay
qoray :
132. Thangn adkhay saning day manim aramuzgay earyoonu :
138. Aul sahat eshitti day chatladuy. day ayttum dyloom
eakhshi khlungan eakhshi tapar. day eaman khlungan eaman
tapar :
184. Day kim kimgay chooyoor khalsay qendi tooshar :
135. Eakhshilkh eakhshilkh bilay toogal lanir, day eamanlk
eamanlkh bilay toogallanir :
186. Boo goongay diyin djaht atsen dyool athaynung anaynung
alyshun algay day qénoolooq bilay eooroogay. amman:
1 Jupeaunp he fhwumar{i ft [up fusprusfs
gap acuubpft apy hp Hapa dust,
Gale heft Punquaapar[Fhuty aftibphppiliy appayfiu
bfuaclf bk wunphunwif’ bu luophap ypapp ufibphppliy
wppiyp fuldunct tf unf, b. fulFunch unywputra ppilgh
Loe Be bff falda imnuper kgny kag byl fad apy
Geyetul” dint wn suunacnndut pun ploduyfep.
erpenetgh Serp wnw$b sumnacmdoagiy bk uphf gbnciga®
Paap bees ie lainne sf plone te gns hop ga aie g le
Sac hk. wquishgh bh? uyuyke wubb yuquishpir pubic Ds
Aid bee FEE susmudp, [NMpbt bk C billy bh
Calf, Spudaglg he bk warp fied apo. quem, putigh
bifjup usu pbugwip déauhp. hk gig mubie dupa ply
L[FL fuphup Gbugutnp he foiuumnts bo Supromp dbauaes h
ng dey pep opgp op [Pugh quay, hog porunp op pay qinw,
getpf dunuiig gin dingacuis fulys ko ng? bleh ape
1 Titulum ex Veneto traxi. fufplhwapuy vel fublapf vel fophapay
alii codd. Initium apud Bod deest paginae iactura.,
2 qluncihu| + he atune zu 58 et Tol et Edjm.
3 Paris 58 omit & et verba an. yung. fpde
* lalley be gen Sif 131.
5 Paris 58 omit #3, item om yhenf, item aeue wu.
lofbhanpy
Jemf rane pil pelpuyp unuuls Sulubuglh, ny feapl Ue Lh =
by * qbusu ful. ord | i ql wpthgl oq dlin.op fepndp® ft
firey fly qb dp Rnughy uityfaunmesl.
Ruytid iad” duypte hgh. fr sumnnadagh bo wubfie fapluyp
2h Spanlinjhuy ply queuh. puyg b[P unghu qnufduss
plane fh po k wincgubfigha jus ply apyf. & Guanneugl
plg quinine pn.
Lae yrpfi poeay quye fi sununewdngty anf plonld urs
phanpyfa fal) dp mungry bye he Guqacgh taluy plhgkqu be
Sfputipu, bk ditelnl nulfs fr yuputing Tonpuu funyhgh?. be
npybe ny p Fwgecnpl zhamgnep gepypigf yin, te
aa) a Kd Sl l/c LC Lak Dae el |
up&abug b uqutthing flag lfiigh bqh bofPs unhug®.
Uege ajay the neumgathy qygypncfdfet he gfrhomnne~
[Ffety & qguitiap ghonc[that E quunnuufeuthfe Spe
ferpumutng, qpupdncmde Sufunsmlg faurufig. fp mort
EE OTEDELE Ma MUP [greene guree yay gn, PES cpee
ghgncguibhf: qinw yoru, fipple Guigfu. b. Sands
Gye wah wppuyt py fu. lub pepe be. felon,
gun gh Shpughwy buy hk glo fupiduttfp py af &
ng qurnaph Supemnupar(Fhunls be folwunne Fhunle qonpoe
a sic Ven. 2 dEnmy fag Ven male.
3 sic semper Ven: taqmh ceteri.
4 yotoctye e@ canonico restitui. Latet graecismus: éxricet cot ra
rpopeta, qualia vertisse Armenum manifestum est. Scriba aliquis
Armenus sermonem graecissantem non agnoscens pro qutachye scripsit
quitach = ‘nomen,’ quod quamvis apud Ven, 58, Bod reperitur, in-
sulsam est. Cod Edjm 2048 insulsitatem miratus tentat: & ‘ta
gueugk qulegh wheewh pa=‘et ille replebit locum nominis tui.’
5 Paris 58 et 131 omit guauhof-
6 Bod post adimg add anuphuir.
200 pepeinp ba (lsewe: [a pet
uppoctbug dépeg. bbe npn be guy!” foopsepyy-
Gre ul gaan uppuy guefunbuts yong. GL opp ap!
ko mnurty pute gho hb kb unbyh Suti®uplg., (pe an
fe sepinnpt aS ql ens fay gk akupge pes peek df
fol. 2° guy b Gugaegp? wnuft (Puqucapf’ binku, hk wu)
yuencgy pepo a Soluy kegbgh fufhup, gh fp hogue
tn [Fhuts fepol fad fogyg wnufh pl gapgfo fp
& fipt?® fb Guriguunhurs knbgh pedhe mngf bwin fully
bk wabuy mupuy qauldu junyuputiu fly be uguyha
wubkp yoeuneguitihyts pull!
Neil? EPG pubu puts frig fr ypusil, wppncf, dkny
h. [dungn qlau fr upanfy pacdy hk dp nealkp fr flpuy Guiipglu,
Ofesupte Pap buy? df uipdurl ly, be. quipdiahbays dp junytu-
ght pe gap buatbe daly gap pubu dh
sugeniohy |
Vege lp Susndpuniny [fp flip qusu po ubusby
CE ADE SBS Lr AT he ee Bd te fac Cade
uprurtfs pad, att E[Pk tii unug ta qu it fuse er usruee ly ®
ft taker ng flog queuitthuy yy peomungqaypafin gay be 'f
Sa og RM a ie a a Da a
Loup 6 waweky wek yb he Swit buply pits qbu hk. uvk Paris 131
et 58.
2 Incipit codex Bod. 3 pip om Bod, 58.
‘Canon add: shuts? mpuy opgp pl fuowlpi be fupurnts ful’ ephp b
Sinnattfis pork le dp dinuughn. gh udp tktug pag yununsouy, be
pune k dk&acfdp Swogka'h Skpucfd pro.
a Bod. S mpduwhbuybu Bod.
7 gap—yuywtky, Ven et 58: Bod om.
8 Apud Canon ita: 9g fig mehyb qugte purr apo dpusn dkqu bk
wilofd fp dupyhwtk ko qpumnunnwbt ay et cetera om: similia Edjm:
Bod male ita: 93 pig fpefp 'f thivth weginfa, wnecky par [Ft
gum yuig eeppaipe fipmentig & fee
lufhunpuy 201
teqtgty pup, bf thypu pb & Fugugaonlag kh
nublpunp dhakjng :
erbed tp pbafy? apyhe Ughiipy ap guna Sughf he
shay Guuatof’ qunage fey Uy cee nyhe plo buf
ap slimy Sugth be pun) Guunith qumncg frp s
Reeeed poe & ply ants fubiouniny purpfioa ply 5 pur
i ese ade oy ir Gl lab
Aegbed py foliamoncion df wtalinfyy bk ply astulfune
fp fulton
Reread fgepy php? ants ful, apr fuhiomnac
pltifu npuphe ql. he dh pbofyp fgopy atiqqudh hk. uitalinfy,
gb dp apeybu pon uindpin dgbughu s
Negeey shqghu ayfith pots hk df plnyly® ply
wlipyguils be ploy utnne piu, gb dh wpGurhupohughu f
tngwk? ;
Degeet! oh bute foph enqop op tyuiiby gplg yb to. 2
dp fuipp pun’ op [dpuihr qelg. Can fe F's
Guilnpanpin fr gapdu puughy pag bk. yurd” putt s
Negbed Mpiggbn. fun ghle fp younink, Ynfobus gies sh b
wpa Anil s apyng® pny :
eqeert de Sumuiy apyfite ued Ypun” multe ghy §
indit, up punafty apy fe bbb bk wuble fp undar gbpuc:
1 jbufy Ven: plufp cet, sed Ven sic utitur infinitivo passim, quem
sequor.
2 add pty Bod, 58. 3 gis Bod, 58.
4 58 hic omit adagium hoc.
5 Skagku qq fufe et om px Ven: ceteri et Edjm add .pa.
8 pdiykp quam Bod et 58.
? whyguodfe bk wiuepfipt Ven: ceteros et Edjm secutus sum.
§ Canon et Edjm: pgp quauu.
9 npyng Canon cum Syriac: «fg ceteri.
10 om apy ft Bod.
L, A. CC
Olen iais fly fowquiqne figs hk pn publi fia qugug of
aphuiukp., hk poy utuiphpegh f Suragquips dp bp[duy , &
pip? wtouged Gag Up nesnly +
Aeqtal EFL? wbuatihu gfdguulfiu pa yaphuy” dh
Suge suntahy prose gl LPG yurilfup Yat suape Gunn guilt
plas
Verbal atti uta phe fr sup qapdag fepag’s
putehifs wpympt 'f poupfr gapdng fepng +
Negi lp dhpa typ 'f ff wtiuqad” bk. paitpuimuny ,
ql dp apgunliupshughu fi uagutnh, bo pac Surge pbifud be.
tay perez qpby 3
epi gape fy fe SES! df foragfip. gh S68 disuluats
upiyku &onpyhe ange fp ayenpenfighy bo npyku funje ke
dinnts bGup fb puubf. be apyhu fangs fr fiance angi
pafluglaeeignian LINES aya ft®. “ah PE SES bu guns
Tore ft he qual bphacu’ nay fubyun play Sutnpapunn [Fp ng
dinathf. poyg b[PG fdnqaeu gine fr fonks frp’ qng pbup he
utility gus fp fafuneits he fp yeaa tie be bop ply,
mjsumnfiop bk pkhncii :
Reread meg qapyfy pa fr pugy kf Supuny mp
funinapsae[de furplugh ghbuton fp :
1 hen prqenque [dF peo Ven et Canon: om pey Bod et 58.
2 hk. S&m Ven.
> om whuutku et q Bod.
* Sannacgutl ply be pb Surgery guurp GoD Ven: Sunn
eq eb om cet 58: watk pkg et cet om Bod.
° gup qgupSunp Bod, 58.
& Suge phifu Ven: funnulhew cet,
qapehy fp SES Ven: gamit apga ” ceteri, item infra bis gut.
° agfoeyku —mguyft or Bod; cetera ap Bod et 58 ita: qi E[Ft
Suphutibn qmemqutame dp but kplnee Sutagwpenfy piggy ng
fufhurpuy 203
Aeghed ld guanlayn op wubt? Up pagncolp, gb opyy
Lapuy wupight s
DegeeaG gornnd upp dinpy* unciny puyg? shiny
unalyb pbuf ply. gb puts puna apyku pop yupuyun by
Begg op ttalfun §y uy [parol qieu
Vepod” afl gguyple ap roy TT q.pen s fh. qutl su fol. 37°
Gung he dive’ po dp ungku, gh fb pupaefAh oppng png
funy sang eer
Negi! unuing qin! Aulus dp kpftuye” gb lp
[Fgumifih pa sum shugh qplg & dappighe :
Yephery” npaybe duskynes & Sune upngad hk oun kh
Lphig & winnunmfufen digpusp: ajuyke quglyas § yp
ho pe® he npef be kqenypy myquiuts he pauplfl be
wd. nay quip:
Deg herh ape ng gy fle qual apap quel hqeuypy be
aqquhuts ke puplhol” ghploape unhinp ap guuliap sh. he
tidut £ Sunny np pute OE [gk wlb bhp but
op why poy Tuesy wn phe afd usp: he Aquy fanoap wuntkh
quy
Meee O df aly [FG wn pla fol uslfun & he bur fabio
inne, ayy Suslpbyles ‘ashes uttshiane [dpe be ain. foberunacs
ncifghy quindh pa, dpigh uy op gaflugh qply :
egiy dp nelhp wsuly sep be dp pbuby suppres
uns fr nt ") als lf: ataupoy lug fre f Dihiuth 3
* Ven om apqzbusl 2 gens [F2- po np wubgl ply Bod.
3 Sententiam hanc om 58. 4 gdiupgt Bod 58.
5 paujg Ven Canon: & whu E[Fk Bod 58.
6 Suep Ven 58: diaep Bod: Sup & suep Canon cum Slavonico.
? A afotpp praem Canon cum Slavonico.
8 om & bf Ven: add 58 Bod et Canon.
9 hk ad. gpd. om Bod 58. 10 Adagium hoc om 58.
2904 fupuunp he fofiumar[F fet
Degen yuenep gastgy dp bananphp, gargh og.
quitbugh wp pf ansu pa’:
Deeeey’ lp [Faqaey quaybetry be bpfFuy fF Gupuatifo'r,
gh udkukgach diss maui hoy bo yuma db& bs
Dlegheny henutif aubh ap sbpa dh pulp f dinnfiou pod.
he dp Sunquithip® plhgbgu hk. Sfputipu ap gf pa yt dh op
86 po dp GbSincy* feu, gh Suge anh nbung pi":
Negbed Pbybe hk punybuy fighu’ np Sag? sh pe dp
nunfge :
Neg! ap? quapunop & puis qply dh Gudunubfy
poy die, qaegh wyatiutifgl peg :
WE My a RPE a a i de we
php plg yoy be fr dhinphuteh be. propppulfu funtion pr ay:
Negi (PS pupdp bu gllp! shphfiintn fel. putahaed
By ynaptiuad” dinutapgtu furtiup shy yypaefe pe:
\epoery’ dp uniiney Ygnnf db& bo dh wny pape
fon. ho muby® (PE zurshguye gl a& ng muyy ayy
fol. 80 purphanugf', hk pre unfunles yappighe s
Regie dp Eppumy umm, gh dp goencrg opng
wpurlurubug hh :
[eget ve pfiangis ag ach opps be suphe dh bphpshp.
qb unin fpuitte ay opuppury & deeper :
1 4 qap antke 58.
2 womwbfp Ven. 8 $éSEkp Bod: $&5tkp Canon.
4 add fp qgfunkju que Bod: ap pfwkt q.plq 58.
5 ap Sug np Bod: ap Sugs Canon: Sug up ceteri: item post Aghu
add yy Bod: add fe#pf Canon.
6 hupy. ap Bod 58.
7 ,kufp Ven male: add wut .px Bod, 58.
8 wuky corr: wukh Ven: wuku ceteri,
9 ayy felt om Bod, 58.
10 pmennp pL” npulnugks f fE pay Ephpf Bod, 58.
[uphupuy 205
Need fb purplin (Ffate apyeng pag dh foupunghu, k.
fb npequealy Tonga: dp mpunllughu.
Nereed ap rhe & wnugnewSp yung gun Spies deSunnn th
wry puss Tati Le sas punnh AES ussuy. futtnap st papa pnutinay
h. puupdpt funinnp Suiting :
Need EE pupdp Ba 2hilp wuts pn b* publ pi po
Gheutapuiiny, lp aul [PL gbg warp Talis uy bpd
aufp be inku mgunpy gb po & Tahir puis gGunyup”
pulipupu auly bh. apduldry s _
Yep? fare serprprieune [Fle nul he. wp Sul lp
ie MS I a ae Cd ae a Sal Cy i a
app appsp fr nupunpupaneg, gb dp” Sbqgp appeh pe
fofuutnal mpluts oapey 3
egbed! apegha gigas. pa ft suipuyfeunune (dhol, he
fe LR ad asia bl Le a Fla LE a ey ch
pep phuf ply yay be 'f dinpyhutel. gh np qaquiiny aubf
fool” wey pape ppp? myunnme unt be. nguiane its dp &
Negi lf gun prog Gund publpfror, gh lp porploaugl
wand, ke ny pir stavinn's prog Gand pa:
Veghl, dp nina bf nypfe gh yopFund” potion fg
pbiufy mafigh” weg mnmptte uyple fod; be qe ingenilp s
Nerbey EAE YobF Gumgh phy ay dp fanenphy be
aprile, gh dp puuphurugh aS bay frumugese fs nmpuudunl
uma qpey :
Negiad lp ubphy qapefic po maunky puis q&unugh
Bod et 58 om JES. my .P-
om puapdp— pn k Bod, 58 et Canon.
om 4 Ven.
1
2
7 om qoeqeyp Bod, 58.
4
5 add pact Bod, 58.
206 fujuinp he fltuunnse [tft
pre qth ny ppuntu E [tk nv} ft bagabl uy fun pbuf
pay:
fol. 4r° (\epeed [uursbinp ap aps Lu f quinn gta quyyng Suh
pbifg fu :
Negierd perk gpa appa fr inf pods le
qe bps wpuunne tn, ob 'f dks qunnuenphs pac squnnne bough?
h pbip pha pup:
Degeend gedyy? quis pol punhqugy qeuppum. phputny
eek ugha ploy nln po gk df kplehughu diauyhuty
alopgquls gb LPL aqusquijune murine abiobe* bate alk
mpis be payrpuau® abhp ke suyumufa,
Deebed lb Supmpomtnay: meng didtayne [Pleura pry gt
df qopocugh ppg dihhacld fits pn:
Reged lp ny ay proflp fr po qafuly qauw pn,
qb df Guuliupduhbuy Yafulagh guymputingy? :
Aepbnh pp pouufuugfiy po waulh purnuenpfh
guedialf dfs faucufp. gh df atipgpuul” be uthdjun jogbughu',
ay Tp Gepgulk equmnuulautif punqypne [bunds mughu, be.
qpumuumuts bapay fr qyaefe tapuy Yneinkughe :
epeeny’ ELPE fppbughy guy pup tule qyunli onpuy
fren Es pe te Ne ceed pe py elle tay cd aire
frogpremnde po f peuplies
1 Ven om “: Bod add gauipf post péq sed del vult: sic apud 58:
L[FE f agate l up pluf eq ay frac ass fr
2 sgeeserier_Ee ug fre Ven . sayansess fot. guhug pu ceteri.
3 gudsa; Canon: yegege ceteri male.
4 muSup pbole Ven: wut fue Canon et 69: om Bod; mox
widkt ex Canon traxi, quia Syriaco consonat.
5 puppusn Bod, Canon, 69; sasmguput Ven; mox sepymfun Bod,
quod om Canon.
6 Su ta pdul fag k qeperfu My ddd fnfu. he yttf tii ft Bod.
7 hh stray frerceests Eplcbughu et om guy Bod.
lufpapuy 207
Need pee & was purpft puta qkuml gutujuyl
al paghghacl[dl us upees tera fa Lhe uthact puopf: Hina joer finbure:
Neried pow & fyp gue’ gutn qhyp dinuep.
eulegh yp mguep wpug neuutif glpfF be bl Sutmyup~
Gl. ful Gayp inane pts [Fnga qaegqqapy Sutuungup st he
bp[tay pu quer fey:
Mereed poe & faq dp ft dbofty pa pots app pod
dh yoyjag chap. poe § Bpitgad dh f dbafis po pale
qguqunpy ghphfiur® [dnmeghuy, pun & acy lf myunmupung?
fi nue pod” put qaespucl df fr wnt ayyng 2
Mezeery po § ag pennnrfFlunlp Fagadly pth fol. 4
ql Sar [Fhunlfe gpaeky*:
a) a a eet ea ee 7 ee a cae
fur Surt Uayras, ba Af wap sualups Gughu dfius bh. ahuuttbuglu
qhunnupuSte be gifSupla he. goursts s
Npphery? pith qenuiti® foupnft pay ko unyur f
fEpuy Guuatipghy. gb l[Ph ipofulu qeutry’ punggp pbipu.
epbet? ALPE puta pura pup qadiph (Fuga qu fr
upunfr part” puri yactu boy qb vapte suyits dbnutif he pap fi
fusunuipfs +
Nerseds pepfeype dp SpSugky s ab ppfoye SpSuglye
fra. by be hafets nqutaneits & be ling 27
Pept pete wae bo uunmfrcune {Fb npagha mpdpe
Suinp be pug gh wala meng” fr flpny Sofa guy
apuyku unl le Sunny :
1 pnymhutf Ven, Canon: wigawif ceter.
2 Sic Ven et Canon: pig yarqu ceteri.
3 ym, fr ee. p- Bod, Canon: fr evar pe apupuupen Ven.
! Bod anpunnm (Fb et qlkdm [Flr
° gpuuph pus Bod: om geasipf Ven, Canon.
6 geed&pk om Bod. 7 Hoc adagium apud Bod deest.
8 FE“ say eas ly ces te pueacph Bod.
208 fupunnp h fu wun [Ffct
epee? guyutibn gape foopgeepy ipo papbiuulfis
pry be gh weneng qpynk yu he attiapyh qoun ke
LfPEY he guy funpsaepz ng guyetah’ angus qdl& [any
gneppe gaywtilu ndiyy bo Ganunnappl ufplib aypngta
glu:
[eztey aaah fPuigannpag b wawSh pana
apg, uepiuhare php pubbpfia pa. qh apybu fr plywiny
wnfardsry gépoene guile qu, he pluf peg wba pep fh
(alae
Negbet bo [Fzuuilfty pa byhugh yauty pa [Fnqa~
[fete gunpShes ‘udiy ko SpSuqhe aepufem fae plpbon
appar Aes Ogee aes easing, 8
Nerd sheshh pphy dp bpfduy fr quanfr®. kb nep
pele squmpgutibte lf cay squrnuulaettles
Degberd® ping ewan ghuy be pg pmpaeghuy glony df
utiguifghy’ qb dp jutujupSunhins dkawifpghe® :
Neves? seeg qeyp foley pot fupunnupute’, bk
fol. 5° fulisueitimughu. be GFE Guipguiupghe quyp utudfiun purifep
puoqdianp ‘bus ag frbstiuy :
Nezberh GPE quyp fofisnnnes unnphe fr pase dh fing.
quannefply, fupt Gunnnpl gpuiti. [Luger (FE quitulputt
wnupka wnwSh pugad dinpphuis wyunnnefph. he fal
pre pou be. qua lf ypgte :
egiery poplar gapy fr po fb pang be fp Supuns be
PE fap igh agus ance ghigu pa fp dha tna s
Nepeed? fb qagtnnutnl be fp Gupuutibg geunuiSly
1 Lh wku Efok Bod: om «ku Ven et Canon.
omg shhnghe fog dy kp [duyp Bod.
3 om apy bul Ven. 4 wh pila s plupu Ven.
5 fas fupunmutaris Ven: putts flisamor [db Bod.
[uftupuy 209
pute gauglyh pots hay dp yuntiuy ghia, gf utente
en puph unin he gunn fbpp fr yee po:
Negted) apy np wnngmudp k fiogp payne nop,
yogh: gout foliamany ko wnaphiop. hap fig.p vypulpan
nelify Gngbty qe uttulfn be athupyy be ng np uunnnck gine :
Deed” fepay pump b. upph pegh, b ng bp pegb'
pels quay pun (fet. pupdp ag he apt pe, bong bp
Suitiy pure quupup. gh [Fhybin munbh kb pliybh, ng
fuph Sutigsty”. pups kphup bk puypiou fr fipay neung
folag, & punugay bp fiidy put qpnubpje play atigfuf bk
uttarhap
Neebey EPG gpa figku fr dh publpug png fi
suyely ys gb dp apsunlupSigpe pp unguil, k putiig pog
ng pul
Nepbed ubpbay yphupdpe pa hk. gift pny gh wndh pn f.
ho fgnpy yotag pag & yyt mziaumutun p vier guisl
eerbh pn’.
Deghery EPG uneph mbpt pn (Fb php vapancy
fgngs dt phyby Thay, gh qfeugnge nenk bk quypnnn~
Guilty wynepps ng [dngqne :
(Vyerpbend® pu & praty fuliamuitny yapplegne [Puts puts
qerat windup fp Sapucne[Phuis qual pofnefFbute. pun &
Suney qapy path aquank uncon, pun & peupllunl” dis n~
feng pute bqpayp Gbawenp s
Nerebed qq poste po Gun dp guyutly 5 gh inphup
t put gq. pom Ven, sed Bod et Canon retinent.
240 ybmn Ven.
2 Gy hang ap atin, prgnd o&bghpe yzyecfs ex Canon: gh whack —
qe: .en (om .p» Bod) ceteri. Lege wtnrz et cf. Syriac.
4 punt Canon. > add dftgh Suunncagl pqupupmnut Canon
6 Hic addit 58 denuo adagium 15.
L. A. DD
210 lupumnp h fotwunas[Ffrt
Bk nppngfy btu yuyu Guiphenpugts bo poe apgur
aap s fre
eptel FAS gfiup plighy’ yurshus qpbgae pa fr 2unnu-
fuunun[Fbuh, b pupf pou plg bk Yaghu polunnch :
epiay! qhige po wautng dacpsuhf he flayp dp ony,
garg acputiny be spas unqurgun be :
Neried papell, pode dh ghautnnp, gocgh wy
ng qunutifighy ugiufiufs fanpspysbpg be prrplyant™s
Neged ofp aseyp pn np Suu pply yb. quiikse
Guep hk shuep pa dp ungky, gb fs pupae [df opyeng png
futuzusughe +
Regbery pore & FE qnquiught gbingy pa’ put [A5 qnghh
b fipey en qaqa Pea’:
Aepbed diay op ppb wummud yufagh poe
qunnnites ghey, be jap nbuutipgha btn yn joule
qeghp enh eno he db Suiplus quny :
Negied ply ants nethenpf ke poy gory goporgtyy
df Gupwnsutly gh wqung shinppryy mpg 9g jolt
purely? [AE aque s 7
Aepeey booulpfaueuneh df antuly y gb qeayfa yey
hypo Seth wbiiincty be qpup fp ph § ke aul gpa phil
Sutuure gis s
Pephed? ELFE punpnpls ghing fr pluughg qual” wphaulfe
JeelFmghg unpury fant purngpumgp plgb npuyhe déqa, pul
uuffunnfungh wgnach apybe qugunipy uefuyha [ogg
wtug gui quitugqunlin [I fete fry he ustlpunts qyunumungh”
1 Hoc adagium tantum apud 58 exstat.
* Tantum apud 58 exstat hoc adagium.
* 69 ita: pgeh quieda. dpizh pgp Soqnd.
+ pqztuges frp Canon (No. 86).
lufhupuy yy l 1
eebend li pertafohp bplduyp oof pf mats
pauphyunlh po garg” wunhgl qply «
Pere berg® gets np [Ange qenbp fps be guy qglun po?
pinpunlfe GapurShay yuu,
Nerend gnpdp pupp bo upumupuny utiphS Guin & any.
he puliocldry fppl? go tpl ly
Debary lenpgacpe gap fi upper maline sz’ gfe fru
Gupunuta (Ff, hb Gulplpm [Fl spite & gopdag! be
wala (Flr Gurung.
epee np phy sige (Fal publ pf pa por? dh
unhly hyn 86 pe ayyng fy enn
Depth ufphay qMpeliupenacfd fe ho annals quiropl~
ua [P fy be? quinn Ff. mpnmnefyniuagia ig nculfagfyey be
ft suyhin pp fululy gh npomacfpats my guppy &
a ty bel
(ephanlf fo liaprry gauph he fo mnunfasner™ spourfohes 9b
agusac[tf dings & a suuphig® be md nuphp fb jopac~ tol. 5”
[Pluk Suntifin:
epbed? ppeemmnuttin dp ufely qh [Foykin te
guyfrbaghe nunfufiiy wuhuye apy punnunnutibs bpp :
1 Canon gl: dp puptugh fe winkugl q phy
2 kpfFuyp om Ven, 58: 2mpe jp add Canon: om ceteri.
2 gS bu pu 58, Canon: ghuf px Ven.
4 4p us gay Ven: +0 shyay Bod: om Canon.
5 hppée Ven, 58: myinyku Bod.
8 afr fe Ven et supra & ufpun. ? SEpug Ven, 58.
5 om wpe qos Ven, 58. Infra wet, dat Bod pro wath.
9 om qurhop. bk. Ven, 58.
0 fufulk; Ven: Ephpusty ceteri.
D aenmfameone fd bulk Bod, 58.
2 fiquy Bod ubi secuntur verba: & ag seiplmg gh. Secutus sum
Ven, 58.
23 Canon add whpruencf[ek.
912 fupunnp h frhuumna [db ft
Degted op aqapy! & fim ply mplgmuifu® & prcumenp,
hap ubugh upunpe fumemph dfdurghny y be op oman &
upinfe® ph & aqnpelia [hun np magus & (Pluyhin ke
achp: frugy yfiap & +
Codex Paris 58 et cod Venet haec addunt adagia :"
Fe (Yepbed? forme gupphgagh dp dinuiabpy be bfdh
finutylu dp gurllp. gl ft pupneg pog govt be
es en
qe QYppbod’ qathbp pa fp dour ful” fp Gbamumuteh
Up punlpuuky, gh pole sup paeinnd thoefdal
quiugh pw pk fnnefps
pe (leper! Speeliaghay GP wi S gg fifi fusnt ae pupa
me (Fh. pay fp wolghu paguringh be my funnfdup be
miteyurngene wnbob, pure & age pulighy pair qafiup:
Negeets yp ppl gays wpaybe Go apuybu tlenp f
ple mbt op qey oe m8 Sephutubs peyg qyeelo
fep SESE:
fee Neha ayy mpph gag ayonka qup&h fp dp
pep [FS bu pul bk quad” gap fig fooupl”
frliuunn [Fp fuoufuls ng gfunk® [F5 Suton fight wink
pufuntiny ap ft popunply dhamg fepog shpifp
fapSuteh gins ke dgh.
fe Nepal EPG wbuatubu g[d gounlfie pa yaphuy »
poe inpuodlees fp fi pay npr, gb peaplfuul wnlibu,
Ske ae Sd a Doc Le fl Oy Lay 3 a
_ Guunegutal ply :
Gb. lege ayp mpphgng uyfuyhu faupdsh bfee
hphhp 280s fb guy 98 gfenk blAL yncfes [up
fubpugpluy §. puiighy npyku dingy & qhunfiie wit
1 20, eeqqnpy: funny 58: quempf{d Canon.
2 uplgulwte 58, 3 Canon CO eed babe
fufttupuy 9138
gages fe yuquphyng’ Uepiyhu diye & yftifie wl
suphug. — utifumfp vufenf mfunntiwy muy, be
whagapl uugetioussly « [fulbpuagyl quhupy A wha
tung plunc[th denful :
fas Negba quufufp Epugtrmenpafalnh. unpu [Fb
bpuighnucop Gbinun, poe myfiryhe fupdh) op f
gphywte pa inu. ag dhuyh fr gplryutib, uy b-
_ Maghls plapne sy :
Ge (\epbet uenafuon dp pbufp. ab bE aet4
Fun! dh una quattkic, bpp qqapys fsoufiu uncin
Guigne fila hag Gum uuuty +
Lee fa all ginnfduty’ (\ppbud fe dfunu pa an.
qtrprusiis he lf Han abuap $
miipgr ils (Fuqua nping nppengy be yuonuufantif
bebyapey. goemuy he purghuys Gupgate fr feppup fir,
ho wub fuplpap fr tufdurr. say pure qiliupyrss ging
quits runmuguh’ fr flpuy Sughatng tayfy. pal ph
qyetunins Gaffe. be fp Shur Sop fe gianjue he
qiep puiphiuits mbiinc »
Qape pute’ qplupye gfpaguk bk manyQ yush. dag
guiguhyu® bk yuky Gulag pare op pep gfup [A]b fr matokin
uppune Shou bh. aang? be ghey Ghawenpis pupa] wbstoney.
Wee core Fre & ap plinprpye Sap hfe antyghy wl Fanta?
qesnpp laueufyt, wiki parti Srcuny sinuy!, funiaups bau
yustus fuueupyo*, undingk fr popp& hk fp b&b. [pe op.
1 Bod sic: fe.q% fap i ap qdhupyt. Similiter infra. Quae
secuntur iuxta cod Bodleianum ordinavi usque ad initium codicis 92.
7 Seuny frst 58. 3 frp 58. 4 add 1g bay 58.
5 Verba Qupu push usque ad whuiwy plane om Ven: add Bod, 58;
sed Bod confuse post & f dESE infra.
6 ait fund. Bod, 58: quit Ven. ” ask —_ sure om 58.
: feanufsi Ven: cxpresecr ess furtasis unis pts Bod, 58.
914, [upuinp he fuliuuunar[d frie
ng & op ypliupyats Epbufite Yuepe mu! ufpry wbpoe-
[Fftih, gunmufrunufyi’ (hk gap ag gppubliag pup Stinny)?
[lhe pits [Fuppacguitbyie yurphy icky plulfukja be gop ng
gliok ptkpu plulup he wu) [PL gpk be unwfuunum [af 4
Supa lie ypunupfuuufiir, bk aubr bfAE ghphpp gls Iuy
eee eb unliac[P bpbumg, ap anlio [Paci puny
kt. gh al suphp fr jopnefthih he utulinn [Fbob
Stuitfi, pe aye bp fapunns qup meuncgh tufduinn:
Og? at neunegh tufdutian phanpyery fuliyy bu fuplpnp
paypunybinn uftifpupfulia’ wppuyfia, h. uguyku fap dha f
Hig opal bfah gieuvaedi he gfepiunt gap) cuss gf
Yaa (Furtan quiggh be Piugh, hk. yushugh fr dhinfr (opr
fol 6 (apt yp BAS yest fel’ caruarlen)wipunpty Gib gy apes
abegk pb" Sagdey, quyy bpbuy fi adinf fepmd” bles
guypte fol pupa Shpaghay” & yyt ke Guubuy & f
pont gkpbyhaipn be qunuShuy ke dpinph fp be
npufuukuy be funpSocpyp frp he ng, frig, gprs Yee
‘nn[Fuite funnily qual frigu [PY fi pops, kag fotrayky [
Sumagy pT he aquiftiagy he mait§hp quouny he unyuruniby,
h. funaphp gapu hk giapfuy he ghppdfonpu fle he qgtanfy
Jetunfyu fp Sowk umnubbps (pe beple wnkup qinufdum
1 om Bod. 2(...) om Bod 58: gfuw& Ven.
at es [tom Venue 58 sic habet wiht push fp ufpun fp tkpa mney.
ke gap ug qpukiuy yupdKuey. Infra Ven wdofd- Epluugiy op
wdofdn fp pungpk Tuy wit suphp et om & ution.
4 ummfumenk 58.
’ Incipit Paris Anc. Fonds Arm. 92 fol 179 r°.
6 om Ven. 7 Yftfpupfdiiay Ven.
8 pg Saqdyy Ven: pig ft §. Canon ceteri.
9 Suyp pT buphng YPuguinfp & bk. kp 58 and 92.
1 ysque ad fig gfeek tantum collationem codicis 58 adhibul.
UL phinga PL 92: ghuge tenga PL Bod, sed tapw uult del.
[ufthurpuy 21 5
ghanpyfia fol) ap qanpdu fol uypuyshing’ ke ghigu fo
punning, faunuly ufo hk wubd f payg fog sptshy
pilegs ho dplbpdiiap gh qpbey fj jamantah “b/Ot
LAY ee eC CC fal atc Le area LL
bplP buy betel dE gf 3 uftufp bpfrdia nknatl fly t Ip- Tus
hn shun Bi] qua [2 mt a au ul ° a Susefr lufteap ybuy ulifs £
Jitsu Unpu my np dé pdkugf*: fwd unl Eunku tiun[dwit
qemepuite? qpuyps frepy gap uomeghuy bp fr inuss fuliy”
fo uub’ fuphap Guys pl Shpughuy & be putip Tonpus
uSunhaghuy be bbw fpph. pacuy quyn, youd plighg fuleg
fe payg npruyf qrurs [pe fenpgacpy mpupluy nuldusr
supe [Fhuty fp upunp frpnede — gylmg gutuncs (ol [Paeg[P’
wa. [AP ginulfit® ufihplhppl; uppuyfii tfitea ff bh. wunphumutap
A wubp nyuybus [pu faploap pyprnghan uftibplpfuba
mppuyprs uamplgf wa bapupougag [Puquenpy. bfF6
stat gfpu fr ply Guuutif, qudaplughy qymepu pn, fol. 6”
& bybughu fp qupmn apSachhwg” op acpho ph. pbup
Spam wun. he bu Gtuqutplgacglg quaisfuupSu
geld) Lied i he Erie quifdnal up fpb ppeliuy™ f débats p"
* rypyping Ven 92. ayplkug Bod: eypeyfinfuleag tld uth qanp da
fer Canon.
2 df futraylugl£ 92 Canon: Bod add yf usyi-
§ wyusndiegh Bod Canon: squmdki Ven: wuundkgfi 92 et om
ab fipunpfolin
4 df dipd-kughs Ven: cp Canon df dipdbiap: Bod 3 ap
dk p&beug f.
5 poeputs Ven 92: pcp Bod.
6 fdty 92: fepry Ven Bod.
7 yplrug Jittuncts ft [Fucqld- om Bod.
S wn. [F guadfir add 92: om Ven Bod.
+tpiackh te aeaplumatf 92: simil apud Canon.
spd uctling Canon: up Spactb ag ceteri male.
a qld us sre nytt Uhifpuppt Ven 92.
a)
216 fupunnp he flaunn [Ff
wnuthg wofrmutnog gb huyghs gis po tulitebgneglay
bp qahntnuyfips pep poly dbatngpfty ke Poplay finnie
bun poling: pe yapdunl foiyplg fic qmeppir! [duqua op fi
qiuy fp mate fephniigy tonfdats dpagi tung wnmff
[Pugucopfiiiy ko wuk’ mppay" gurfunbui qagghes [pu
qugne sags gap Yhpluy bd fp muh pny fuk pun bgp
wnbuutiby qguppu unadh po fubhap Guyph fol” op fr
une bo fp dbSa fal pal by wnbmg fod he play he
fgk. fi qagith [Aztundkug poge (pe [Poeglte gape qpluy,
kp tonfduin fp putife le ubuohgneghuy bp qdlauafyti
fuly dhnagp fit", bo uabay uyprpng qspedarpulily gop
fiypr bye qpbuy?, anufh (Fuquenpfis [po fepl pulg
fPugquenp nprodégun yoy bo aul, O fig dbqeip bP
wpuipluy bu fufhapfi’ op upayhe upup pg fre |p0
ferpfaqubp gph tufduts Spunhithurn uppuyfie® ayuybe’ [Fs
sapdud phfiinincs ygips youdaphaghy yopu. poh
Ae BAN a a a ahi ck ars Kt Leagan Ce
unhonj. he fpph mbughy ghu Subuunbughu piyy bl ful
palgh Speen’ p yuspuacntf: wun. pu bb by hay, gh inbughn
gore fle [ppbp gftecfans wn fy he fips plang an
[Fugquengh, big wnt [Fmquenpfie ko wake df mypua~
dips nf mippuye ay! bh kp[Ffgorp pf puis wpSntulug
h nbugarp (Of spp apps fig. angen gly Gpundighe
pbufe Ype mnbuy® uftifpeipfl gop fog? be. bie fr puzan
L quidpta kp[Puy fp wma 92% et om [Ama
2 om Ven: /#% 92. 3 om ku Ven.
4 ab & usque ad gdébawgpfr del uult Bod pr m ut uid.
5 gaplay Ven 92: Yupluy Bod.
© Spuntistan. [Furpunupr Ven: Bod add [Ameq{d.
To ypufubutr Gey, et om Eb 92.
8
Canon: & run bway ene fd-uie quipprasl he glary hf yptesy sevts pS ach~
Fug :
[uftpupuy 217
apSartbug, ho byfun qb quepai.p fulufp. be bu Bufur-
wnkgf play bl” inpuy, apyku Spuntinbay pe pppbe bunbe
wppuye ayundhgun yydts — feuky ufuan toufdutry ke
wu dp npunlip nppuys ny bp(Fhgap fr amin be ke
aShg asuypt fel globhap) wnmit pn Leh uppuyis
glanfduiy LEE Shu glsfjap mamgh fl aypnpgheu
MSudkSu nul phy, be fp flpay udbiay? gup&ng fulag
Senne” pageegig qphge he qunlkuayh gupdp
apputhug ply pptuphugfu* Sapunupoe [dps [pe wppuyph
Ta aoe lol ee a aad eI a dl ea
wn for he wnbe (fife pl appuys wamplug ypu wn.
ply & aubl by un fu he fh dhwaufite ae pale pbipg fle +
ee ynptanl giuighy aul, gla appuylee fable qf &
fui, funpSppaiihg be. fofuate pl Efyy bo Spenbitiunnan.
wnuitiy wunpeng bf bugeng. be. ypupdluy bybp f dagd”
[Fgiunlbwg flag. be. [Fnefuuis gaye gpbuy bp Tantus fol?
putife b whothgneghuy bp qabalugfpt fap fuly dba
Tug fi, ben mppegfls wn. fru be wul? wn be” pibfPipg fps
Ure be bpph. pill pguy, po sun wT uiigindp ful. he
pegne fo py thaquiqa(d quypuphguny bk bu unfolguy,
hgh fpple ql gfrlaplyng. — faegph pf pate folinnnn [Fbuth,
hing quuithf uuy yunnuufaatip, ToufPurt freoby alpare.
h muk gf fb pong ig ghphung appayfps Guplenp quns~
Shey he unhennkay, merp gthah pa zslplauf® bo qn
1 om Ven.
2 + gSeye pr 92.
8 add pushy he f Bod.
4 f dbnu Fy did Bod: eq f{tbupkt Ven: Peg f{fdmplru 99 : gap&pa.
ffidupleaght Canon: item supra ¢#ps4 omnes praeter Canon.
: om Ven. 6 om wa fe 92,
7 Hupp wrth yp cing pdiag Bod.
L. A. E E
218 fupuinp h. frbuemnr [Ffts
en fb potty, he appaye yanpdyg yopbow fey fiber ke
wuk gupacubiup, Twuyfryfr fcpyy® [FG weup myuriatibr
guitar fubhupys ke Ghamgry qynele papers beh. Yutugne
fol. Thu 0s [pe bu uitejay fi fhpny bpbumyg flags Evite qual
ho wuld uppay gurcfunburs Yong. udk guy qbu fay
toe ttis he. fp putufig flag ag utouughps [pe ho yuudul full
glial” ap ng. fing dhequy ply, ke fr upyun fo tultugne [Fb
ns gry witadby bP 2. py ngqapllew fod he Spuulaybun
finds qh fb yputa poli uyutigh glu be qbiaplfitia ful”
ugh pp [Fugacitis [po [Furqunnye Spandaghug uporu-
diupiny gh fb qpunts fuly® uywighn ghut hk fpyhe bb f
Pugucapha? gplgh [Pnefam yoyo] wn uphuauty tpn ful’
bh. wuld? Qapdud [Fncfumu fp pkg Guiuautuby yn Gurr
poy wa pt Yacuatin ens he yphggfiy qghum ugy be
ghght fut umyy be pugghts ghu gh bu mbufg wg p
fladp quvpuhutia np pots qh fr Ybuputine{Phuty flat
hyn upwughy Gag dk&udbdS, op uuu purgeing fulag kh.
funpunfiye ghabgfye wn. fp greunty be. f pdpey spe npbuinusn
ffitita pl ° gS prudinghuyuts fol Yurmuplnge |py prog nd
fj be bale gunuws fp aneh, he by unwShbague obquis k
fhpedpling quan, bh tin piligh; yfopa Gpue L: wiandmnie.
Mush. fadpkgutn bo upphgur hf pach dinfis pe bo ke
(fie fol” attbap youu mpreudnpuy paynd, he wuwgf gous
Upncudiap, pil pt Guyhmg gkphfiu kinky quod
i tiny frags fer 92. 2 + fa eerTscryeusprarr 9).
3 fday 92: pep ceteri.
4 ghu 92: quw ceteri. 5 fp dinunk 92,
6 bpuu pt Jyt fhamnanct En he cu pay npuyles Lb Soudijpl ap Ven,
99, 58 addit Juyud- nt mpipingts Sourdias lug fud play Jap pupanny
Reliqua desunt apud 58.
[ufthurpuy 219
mgurep pry he spghu® quiqnesugi op fr dpuufia Yiephuy ®
fdp. he figkw que np dhintih fin g.phq uftnpupfulity
appeyf) Gung’, ho hw wnbay yushgp qply dpiigh
wapaye felyphag pela bh fpph mpoy gphy wail
henpar papel dhSudbdu bur feds Upp quegke ghey
be Gunny gfnloaphe tpufunbong fulage be pbb peg
yupphu dbSsudb&uy hb. dinfeupli pa papas pbtp pha
pepft. Eff ayp dp? fi putayfy be gyd tahoe BE fied. tol. 8°
wpfctnpung fb yppure foliyy be shiaSunyupun &S buttons
linpus ubifipup" Gogh. mp umupghu yguibgkpdu ful” fh
pouty fis ke qgkgucguitey tls be wyuiaghe quay kunnin phe
qopuniiah (Fuquenpfie: (pe feph quays muagh gupocuding,
Eas ase ke bed Clete aad ay orl hel cane Ly a alae |G
tule hk gbtinenppts [Pdphuyp, fr play" quip[Fhute
Gumupuly gflpyft, b. uguibfe québkpup Sunny ful; be
Chamgngfs qaync fa unpus fp Tuleh uthgniin be.
by Gualpueu ff puqupy wunphumutibuys’ [FG lophop ply
b filtennnh dina, Quyiducl upocoding plblpir fl be
wplumus litte [ol mpupfio® mace ghutunfiop. — kphuy-
tine [B fs ons Guirgatn Ek puspdpne [Ff oops
Gusmuapusl gylary fulys dhpd fp pputs ubing wtou, be
1 Canon sic: yfyhu qulp kqpnuypac[Fkat dipy: tb dp dkqutushy
wupleuis pliy. gh ppuku ap ba winqaip Ede yy be yfatuy quays op
Sayph: abukpuppliy kn phy p dbau pt fr myuruneidh,
2 fkpk, Ven, et saepius hac forma participii omissa vocali
utitur.
3 mppryf Sup Ven 92: [dq Surpi sic Bod.
4 buf pdr uty Bod: equpq. ded. 92 omissis ceteris.
: pL mp lf: Ven Bod : hess prey. fs 92.
6 om Ven. 7 Ysifipap Ven 92: uffimpuppt Bod.
8 fh pty Ven 92: f efi cet. 9 4 find 92.
10 Sacamuup 92, puto recte. WL ppwta ubkdwtg nut pdry 92.
220 fujrump he flume [Ffrt
wphfa ghu fp bhypa, bk byf an fin Gag & Jacp b ging
wipoculinp un (Pugucnpte he yanmibag’ bah fublhup
uywitiene's [pe anlple np publi gihinch ful; ad G fie be anya
gure bf) bk wubfie® weg phy guppy ty & mp faliupl
qgenpse po uppacbhiuny Suppor (Fhudp pads Quyodunl
faghing wppuzph plufdats be aeuk’ byl apes paphp qunuit
Aung? Sunp par [pf tuba be pnfatil poyry's
¢ngnflwg qgncuutiu’, bo wpup aepinfun (df hd. be
qoumugu he qupupiiuyy supgupby’, mariihp qurnlonybe
syFs b guphumuting Pn h fubill, ng anbing& py tour b* full p
yankhhy py tulin, ap wtneghay bp glu | pe be f ghutranpop
unite pub quags he ySumangutou nggng™ Summuypy pulagy be
fol. 80 bar ayy fr Shen” puyfy he gutbhuyp utd fol ueshun. Guigh
ho quinn dp dap b& purdudf, be Ef fpussbay ad
pushy fulag. peal” pol fs.p munphumutibuyg be ufack-
ageng fuilabute jfubu’. fipph pocun quyn (Fmgqucopts
befrgnugeng. LEE luphup yaypp® dbase, h. uftom bngeng
boa wgtepSa munpkumutcbayg funpabuie, sort nepeusfe
babes [pe gpbng [AnefulP pupae” appar bg frye
gong upeyhu wa ubthpupfl, appayt aunphunutibayg :
eye? bpac[Phutiy bo fPugmenpne Phy. gfunm [Ffrd
teat ehg gh fedpl 2btuhy snyquputin® ply bpifiigt: bk
1 pdm dinwe Bod ubi supr vs scr pr M wyuriue.
2 om h& uneg Bod. * ghucuwie male Bod.
4 sunpruugusp 92 melius. Som yaydt 92.
S tua & Ven Bod: wy 92. 7 gqpeagt 92.
Som fp Shiu 92. 9 jfuukt 92: fp tudiauk Ven Bod.
1 aria 32:
4 sic in mg pr m Bod, in textu autem «peng sic,
— + slop 92.
8 aamwputun Or. Ven, Bod add supra vs.
bofunpuy 221
puy bpipfu f SES f Gusfu. wu hy. anuplus TT1 e fu Nia puna
supp} ap 2huk. he. art | i rp frus- S aap guild : uns] wy usen pau fs
Naeyest [GE artifny[d untbku? ku quil” he penta q[Fugunn~
palspeny & ghpttpy po wnuphgigs ppl paca yuyu
qtr faaspru puts Peps f fupumn S up guttly° [¢£ glug untkdp.
wuld tufuupuppt* af [Fuunap, ayy a anny pun
rut fr “yy puthfp, peyg SFL tuufd itn np neubuy Ef
fufthuapl, h gpk gpypac[dfcts Uapur, he whl £ ft unash
Lapua, Tuas Guupusgh ena Vashi mpurnnuufuutefr nypyl” pttfiys
quip g plug su ppuypl Egfuywmugeng: Oapotul uspipuryls
jashug gtnfduie®, b sayntebug glenpSacpate be ben’ fi toa
g[tarfuuir, ft aussi puupdp mpurnpul larg be aul, hcl ia
putay® he nhpr? ms hupht fXiuply hud any upenuulasalp.
R
bu glues py Gunpurghg wn mpereniulunthp bpp [meme
fFuquenpt Jpn. prude jultannyt fepdl Al Dawu.
he Angkp qdapaciuts fep f aul. Gea pony lufthup
pulps bh frhauuncth. f fuuno thupy tars hapacuf p.piy.
pulugh ie f Suphfin qqgnpeu uppncbbug dE png. Bu. E[Fk
1 wnku—un. fu om Bod. sed add Ven Canon. postea dat Bod
et Ven LT Le ed he pluumact auypt 99.
2 Canon add qyusdis pl
Som Suapgutiby, 92.
4 Canon Bz tapas wnupiubaculay p mulls sary rp-t4y fats fa gps apie fuphapir
erras jf expesereises frees fr he upd tan fd iat ape £ f unk afs Dap.
5 om Ven Bod. 8 + Spans 92 et om fp tun
7 & Ven Bod: ef 92.
8 Canon wpe pufs grip ip suidp as pup wank exy aes crises tt fssss't fr ay
[#e dupa fly hep poewe mp put anrprerlle gece Jyt Jmpiue.
9 thee Bod: ppupt 92: rhpe Ven.
yA hyd fupeomp h fuftasunne [Ffrct
muyp np pee fuk bu iuyf talin ghis he fitoyphy sfrub,
wigan guid mujer ko mpduldy': Ppp pou quyn
uipneudinp pbhpr ful byug mnwSh [duquenpfe bk mul,
[Furgunnpy junfunbute Glg., ap qgpunbatiu [Fuquenphis
ng wn isSunyupun be gb ay Spunlitopts bh. [Forges op fib
dp §*. ype gluphurp Spunlaylghp wequriuily , be tous phn.
fhugutyh § Suk wappajs frurubu mpoeudinp Sunuy
[uP he Surunmup file bfFE qlupyarpe Geeputif gaeughu® fod
phShgu be Spputypu ined * phy, be yqmpyha déSudkdu
quypphekl? pha: [pe mpoudinp, fpph pocun quyy f
[Fugue np bu, ppph upuldafs Guns bf mn fo he
iping gama ghitteadinp wnat, bk bute glu uienp. bh!
ble bphup fol uypurqrcthuy be gence ol fugthuy be
pyauyacip pl fpph. qupSacy wdkghay . |ypph benku ghe
[Furguenpi®, Gapagyg qynele pops be unlingkp Suyhp™
siphuu publ he. Gaighe Guyhgun ghud wilin [uyfg Epluuee
homuk gfe (MY afpbyh & epnncushars Eqeuyp fol fofyny
kp[F fp nes pa he pupdatikw quidh pn unepu fos be
anys bybuShp wn fue pe mpurpf nyplagha, be pupdlay
bhp wa [duquenps bk wk (Fuquenpt’ dhquy phy suyp
luphuip. pu plg ng. fig dbquy uy tau[duis phanppfe
eos gop lene ghuy Efe [pe bw ustehy fr fb pay Bplay
fuligy Ephfp yugh (Fuquenpfin bk wus (\pnfghat.
Lom & mpd. 92. 2 ge—dp & om Bod.
8 pbiypwthagacugku 92: loco gacagku dat glpgk« Ven.
4 Sueqneghg Bod forsan recte. 5 wut Bod.
6 fepli—[Fug. om 92. 7 hk} putigh 92.
Sh gyncfs—ubk gkuy | Canon: k skp gyluy fily [Puntbay bp be
dig dacpocn ite
? [PF ang anrnpi| r way jesse fase Bod. 0 Spey Ven 92.
N ykpluu fl” Bod.
[uflpapuy 993
ubuf gbplou wappuypy Geipetif bly hail” suphp fied
ae Gl A Ba ikea ak LN ee ak Le if
qzuapsu. Lol Punecap’ poewp quyey nf vpusnneushuit
genp Lobhap, bf yhig & unaphuy hgfrqumgpir
uuughey , puitgh plubfsph tfiacugengh bk wsunplunutof
pepe: “pe. uneld™ sep ae nee pepe fe
qynie appacthug png EPG fupyup Geuquith by hk unlb-
thphuis op pupgtte® rpupadgfin fo mbgbu prpbuing’ [pe
Seunliagkug [Fuguenps pupng yupzay EFL fubloap
phuputip be [pe al” pluul ge tftuackh be wunpluputap
pupduth pepaputishep fp ikgbu fepbutng’ pe be wuld”
gldugunnte ufitanpuphl [PL fur ayy pase gop
mnmphug befugmugfie ym. dh Gaga. be bplduyg be
mung odin aypuunnufoutify be qSupta fe ghafrgnnul bo
epg wn phys ppple preun Punpucape acpmifu bys he
be gyaets pouglintuitfts pony llgyg” yupacudinp, hf
fugher gpigh we uphanuy [fie fly aumgh nyuyke,
Qeaptud Gappmn gales poe npeny mae ope dune
mpSacy sy be poouquye phnufuun any ko pee bf ene gue
inqu, np ulncguithts ylishunfii, be ube ugpnyha® fuse «
bhp > Slip ughew. Supunuppu quit? famburre [pe wncep
Uintaky foo syurprate, — byphusjone {Pf onus oo. futegnets
he yprpedortas dp? he. Gunuerne [Ffet ong dp! he nnep Sfeuuit
qaeghy .p aplfung dithuiigt bh wacp Glpwhacp ap dachugis
yur op quafiusp. hk macy qunghy gidusibenfir fr fo puy
upSacagiy hk yutuu [Pnfigu unlely y dfitigh undapn [dpet
1 + frpuputighepnp Bod.
2 ke 6 pusdiny bk wg—feplutag om Bod.
3 husgayy Bod. 4 usta Gurcae Canon. : fume atts by uss Ven
5 yeqeyorts dp Ven: Gurfuet Bod. * deTufines dp Ven.
fol, 9%°
994, fupeanp L ptuamnarc[Ffris
wlohe uytnyhu unfapre {Ip acy dish pupae
puruih 2X. wtahac. |po uphinnwiin pir pl yyd
frfivunoch Epo apap quel fugfepehp gap’ frig wsmugh.
supetul uppugs Gpudighug fd qhay gogfuynn be
bppl. Guup fp pacats bgfupnnufy wdf pduriafiy gurplengh
fol. lo npuyke fb undapkfiue bo Gunyhgfp fp fépuy updacagin
[Fosin fr flp bh. pupdpaguir, bh divilnp pi: uququdh pe be
wubfi’ fue fp. Shi aghew, Sapinuppe fait faunfum,
hk bu fufhepe anf qacaquily f Gln dink ap bh. Sue
qeyps quis Gaphuibf. ipeafFuglp, anep qop filugpht
uyprmup pls |zphhuy? wppuyo kg pupmagng’, bk. quyuliugun.
JyF & mya bgh, b Spundighog f§ncguiby gig , &
muh by Suibghp engfumuiiug nga", pip app be apuife
pip» be fughele £4 wn fu be fpph yg hgh dashing
qu [Fuqucaph bk wub ghw ghg & wine poe he auld
wpphul & utincs full patil wupacg bef afta pupplay
wp puyfie [pe ppp porue [duquenph mpadigun yyF;
hub’ bu uyguyhe utwpy [Pnckguy yuge aplogpuryfuliy
uppuyfits wanphunuiibuyg, op wnpacd dp wnuphiug wn. fru
ina fod wyusemaufuuiifi. [pe aul gpur biplt fp anc pak
fugbes bY asm pur pe fepl funghete pug) Spuuliis tom
uppuyh qucpagt frags qb petgats pyedin poylle
A fiipe uppuy qgbgun qplmn Sfpuifs ko wane.
puldaaty fepy he quecpp Tapas zaep penance — spunliy-
bug he ashing gba mn fraps be ambe Upefundy eat
nhl bu. ul queppte fol oe ubitobtns Cub”
thot fu poe. yg, A tufrapopp pr ppaing Ungut.
US gfe bp lF gure Plewta po be fughes by win fre pple
ie 2 us : on El E
i quid’ q"f Bod. : Eh i Ven f l Bod
3 om Ven. om Ven.
[ubyupuy 225
Sip fp amt pL he bhp fugit an yy qebgyg (une.
qecpg peynge be fiupe qa gue quipdfipy bo ak gf
PM udnthd buy jul queppts pl wD ndwubes [pe
nub tadets bu ym. aiphauhatiy be nafeupuyp) pa Samus
plats unpes | pe yapatany sek ghuskp[s joe la Gerate
pr hk dunfes by un fue he fpph fugheh paugh?
Gemiukug wufaupupge gb ggbggfa qpbuun tb phaeu tol. 10°
Sry. ke fupu paghgun. qabum spbenne profane, be tumure.
pufdan pep be uk? PL datebl bo Clube buy telat bu
pepnpys & Wufeupagpy po Sanjuteg bapa CQuyed ud”
wpipusyls ne paul bah. be uuke [uw ia qh outus upurtr
Ufieapup fl appuge at ihiety be Yubd™ pun plyft
Yel es tok yh i ad of eee he Lae acl (cc ay ta
wy te rg ele be appre genplan usta!”
Ufempep fl uppuye whis G phyablhy bo toufuupuypts
haps tpuypunnurjagt®. yopdunl fodh Ufnfeh uidph', be.
wpa! gueg fe pupdaeu, byute [dununnpne [bundpie,
npauny b feujone hanuyguyldu upbyutuir, he ynpdunt
eadfy Gaiphnun wSh he daruph gifayen popup he sey te
aie pe i Gepyeel: ged? opera Mee epee
uuu fut ghng & atanes pn Gull upyup & winch ple
Ue Gancunuhuis YFbquinagap. [pe auld! npadg hk
wnbuft ghpbuy pa wppoy qual” Ypuiif, uk (Parga ngt
aye ang ap sibuy bolgps qb bepywp peuputip buf, ugunp
fulnf.p nbup Gbuyputf. [pe bu utihay fb fl pay bpbuwg flag,
bylpp yugp Tahu ko Gunlpmphgp qu. [uh Puquenge
1 gucpp Bod. 4 h—sinwgh om Ven.
3 tblapanwdaye Ven. 4 Yad et | Ven.
5 + Bapun Bod. 6 upefd- wntk wtdapbrug Bod.
? Supt Ven.
L, A. FF
Gutnh guy fuunuu’ blF& uputs dh guys be fs fbpuy ug ubuitin
kpyomuanuis diyppy b. fp flpuy tuegu utifn.p bphuacip. bh
fb flpuy? utineng umpoutiyulp bypyap. dp uhh
Upestr unfrmal. | pe unbil™ [Puqunnpy quay wunreng
GnplFupuStbpe gpk, ulate gop wumghy muplie by be
diypp Epjmnuueh udpup bh, wifpept® bpbunch wcacpp
fol. 11° wxdangh bb. unepSutgul «po dpi whe be dpe anpuul!
ghphy be ghabptr bs uk fPuqunopts gig & putin ge’ np
shofapnaul, dpiigh "f toftunek be. fypaufa bP qbuipry prose
freuuiipts dkny glopfiiSbet bpffupig ah pagy be dofthgum
pe febpenpe byl pp ude he te Guipery anpper lhs peti fe
Histintry mit bf qin: Qyuyletunl” syuundbg fir [Pugin op fit’
bE epbep gefan dbp wing le, quippab: ant pe
rsh gqhu (Pungunenpr, bk unk lapheupy dunt Ep
qyfe? hp utnupghe & qupfeity mutSbe. [pe wsubl™ gb
TTA se aa ed RY pc tC
fied Puqucap. diy enue” puggp bp be pad? bande.
qeplFacguiokp” ghey bpfduy geppncifus Wr pbgbple
sued sapun be bGuna qqynefe wpunquight, b bff ayup.
[pe ah appays [ud uguyhu (Facfy [FE apgunp Shaguyp
putty ipo fe felunnnarfdfcig poSl gui. Qbepupnaul
Upiugh fp Ufa k bX. fupwufe &. ayy df mphug ‘fp dp
ghebrhs ybeipy bgunn qaynefe mpuqught: bk hfe unin.
[pe abl dpyhe [uppity gap pacar: Yoeuutip dlp™ b
1 fuacapu tank Ven. 2 add dha puws Bod male.
3 fupmfuu E Ven 92: tlege fepwuufu b.
4h qup. m. om Bod. 5 gg ftut 92,
8 ftmunul Eqk. Bod. 7 om tapas Ven Bod.
Som yw Ven. 9 quppat antl 92.
10 Solquit 92, 1 wept Bod. 2 fupfpusect 92,
% Canon sic: qh & gkpfduppt fupfotfugfht juunpfay parm foonp
[ufyupuy 227
deptiguin’. Vuh appaye’ fog quays by be ictbuy frud
uppity uniagke apple byl bu fr toda asuk [Parque np?
gg fepgin al § ghng fanufe fuplpapr uumghp, [25 hp
gfunkdp, & yockuy bide qpatey quype & bu makoy gpbgf
[Frefun uyauyfue (o YPtnpayfelia appayh aggaye we.
frupunenits wppayy kafupnnungeng. upp bo" kqpwipp
bqespg wbunohy ”, bk (Fuqucapp (Puquenping. fp Fusdise~
tuff gugudhy Sufyp hk yupnp zunn ky bghuy", ke
poms apalmekug patdacg wlbpage Upp spend hugy tol, 1™
ine phphy find fp dha Spnfepunubpy updraft oO.
etipupe pe qltacfuaih uhpkgh bk dinft wn PPoquengs he
eel acc! ee ir ea atk | of a] COLCA clea) tania ean el 6
nb. laf beng Tan fompupngy frpngy! she pulp be
eo wip Eft dkip jnebuy bp be ghubdp qputny
quyp peyg fa wubd; (FE jockey bp uunglp dfiigpa
chp pughwy yldnfan, [pe ag funpuigfiy asulye he
peghay Yappughi. abd; pnebuy Ep ognp gps
wnepe [lub apple (FE quesgh® aquipuis ng diutolu fied,
qoupte ghapupnnul ng uutipu, [pe% bu iin fp wanes df
fen lee puiins aoa e gh yepae mei nee ple Sar op:
1 Yobtk gut 92. 2 om wuk fF. Ven Bod.
3 tel | + unk fii [Fe Bod. be hupkenp Lu Ven.
5 om wheuatiky 92. 8 Eqkt 992.
7
of? *! 74 PT he ms tn fupppy Ven: pep pr he ny Teen furn pun pug
fepege Bod sed fepngy punctis notat: (PF Gfhy & =3 add 92 et om
PER gir:
8 qusesunbres 99,
® Canon fupud-uadt® diay funps Eq LA kf [Fhhstug Gaye snub SmbEgh
qopili ness mu ple diag kp. be ptiuad Sug burg ss pile fuunttgyh
ns fs pug TET LA uplh f poeaadacart A Eph bya gayle upughn futung p
fe uul wn pt upp uy Spudiasbuy ab Pugoidfiught. o°
928 fupuinp Lh [uhuunn [dF frt
hf Sugh, uphnc® guyldhg fp unuitie! utara ob. he
wnfr dingh ueswgh be mph G Sule he pth fp tm
kplchigun apyke rdiatnadp2 pe mull Spuntatr innep
upp gb Foynfhugk quyaputiup, bk bu uy shatukghy,
beet funbu mppugt’ SpSmghgue bo wuhe Uepgtebay bu
por mash yg. [pe ympgheu dkSwdbSu bin feds be
gqupta shafrgnauk blag, & pupaf b feuqugn [tt
wilp® wpdubburg ghu bh plugh, yeph yoru onppuyji
uplnpuippl” ypuyocuats fod; by plugenein) [oP ae pufanr [oe .
beet. aqgachhynp qdpdbututh, maby inupun gbu jungu
puta fepy he fp qynefe purgiliuhuiifiy pougdhgryg qbu.
he pip cpp (Pfe purge unnepay he pylon
dbSudbdu shopGhug fild, [pe mul glu, af Suyp fol
bebop, latyphuy felt uy dbSulhd qupgha bung
hy be bu kphfpungp tlie LO auld? sappy gun funbath
fol. 12° fung?. gape fitg, fed yuapghty — qualfu’® mpneubinpay
pablipf pol spupgh bug, op incur Gluthu Sunughy gage
bl, fd onughu quu[duis planpyfs bE gap! acuncgfy gb
ng neue qunwS$i meuneits paupenp® [pe bin mpl
quultuts phanpyfiu’ fr dhau fib bk funykgh qu ping
ugbeuny Ephuldy dpy, op Sp tangy 5+ putipupy 'p qpuis
upussfie fuliyy bo guide pup gine pbybupuyf Sunayfin
fly, [pe Spanlighgl quite Guiphuruby fp [Ffgaciu be
pap inp, he ub gi fp dials pt be shyutabje
gop fing waste foueuful” plop any be gar gplu fp
1 waft Bod 92. ° Sivtagp Ven.
3 fouqur[tbuadp Bod. 4 Ephpugusg f ‘tidia f. om Bod.
5 pure f om Ven, S add amp Bod.
7 gop meune gf | Canon al TT neon meuncughy Dida.
8 gupemlé Ven: [ft Bod. ®* om Ven.
lubhepuy 229
[Bfonp bo syushin he mny fi! Talia Gang amtun be Joop
uuhun. |ypouk, ujuuy hb wok upayke :
epeed np ping mutta ng pu ploy [Fffactu 1
polgnegusabh? :
forse uby funn. tranfuits be. auk pgk yr panplngunpe? [in
Suyp ole dkquy play Seyp (oT eflenp!. [PG aqapdpu
fut Sunuyfu po, hk lghg phy saq bk? dafuppy bo Susy
ga uenepu dking fulag, pe bu usubl gin s
Vegiay guoldan qnig umegh pply bk ym?
pufFangy fulyy YnpSuirhghy gpa:
eget be phghqu hk Sfpustfu qglgnegh ply, & par 3
Saga] unyubutohgtp yliuplfiow fol:
epee bu pupdpagergh qpbg npuybu mzmupul. 4
gh b[Ph kyhugh wn. fu [a gnunlpi’ bybg bk wlpugeyg fb ply
poe. Puppia qunup [A giuadf unui” poly +
(\egoary fe binm qphy fp fuune ke fp qunnfeuy ho goed
enntuhghp ghu fr dlnu [Fxiunlin be dias:
epeey® bu neunegp q.paq apiylu Auge wynebune, he 6
wh pa fp Sul pn ke dint fl pabkp fp phpuis poo be
tinnnelp m dal uplgkp pupu pr® $ fol. 123 vo
1 unugf Bod.
: pet Ven: pubgacguubi Bod : + he pun. puusur pekga:gutkh
Canon.
8 Canon: ab afar geusp pug pelepogpyis 7? Lo wukST gh pultan.
spusprausg re
4 Mequy—lufeup om Ven. 5 Saq & om Bod.
6 ord "ee ft HA 92.
7 [Pytudpi puruy bipt fri f musts 92,
8 Canon melius ita: fl. wiacgh g.phq auf dul updsuf he
thuanchp pe upilr uy Efi f Jeu ft putas sn lyis 29 fp Ep uslruustiley
qhe:
9 Sees ents — pels peters 7 om Ven. 10 uplep fuse pn Ven.
230 [upp L fla umn nefF ft
T flegeed? ppupae lef PP he ustlbqe (Efe pf
fiphbwg gb’ hk auplgyg you be atfpunm [af pa ng
pudaqheg preys
8 fNebenl! bgt fd npiyhu qu” ap bap qusukyn,
hunk umbgi® mga fuuyfdng np sup & pute ppyy.
papahey Soup gle alta negate ke ha bs ay oldafehe
b fbpuy Tenpun hk. Ufbug qin he wu. ghph, ag ghabbp
E[PE anes bh. Gagp pa fr gan fol Sp
9 Negbel! bg kp fod apuyhu uySW np nembp qunpoiin
wk anpet® gh? neko ghu, 3 ghnku. bE fob?
grec gap ltfy pre mul uySt. [zu fp phputin [bh
nell” qphg he gin! umSneuts fuly faye qual po ke
gbubu qdap [Ft fl:
10 Negheh bgkp fad apy bu aye ny dghing qui ghphfiin
hong fopug quily fp fip. uy quitucphin fifeh fog
gerGhgue. gh ppdun boi fb qyncfs pop:
110 ‘pnpdbay® bgkp fed npuyhe ubpditiu ann’ ap gutibong
qepeu Fhe tngnflemg gpfen Sfrug® be uyy © syurlvsn s
120 legbuh bqbp fod npayhn foagfe” ap "pnphp qdund
1 om Ven.
2 neqennch—aq[dufFt om Ven.
: Canon om g&pf. Dehine ita: a3 ghukfhp geup tupfds. [Fl
qeor hie pn mu JS ke
4 Canon ita Syriaco concors: [#& mupdiaund fdid tkphbt qdap[dt
5 ght Ven 92: uyundp Bod.
§pVen: 4/92: j&e Bod: bun 69: © canonico restitui.
7 + pest OE cory 92. 6 qeapdtuasy | apy bal 92.
S apfew Sfeg Ven 92: apuyku . &. Bod.
10 om «ayy Ven.
1 Canon; apyka qhunt gap hunpkpin auk Suanie Eft as bhp
Shiki ap fp abn pig Eng qeaphhp gegldky pod:
fubhapuy 231
wu Suns’, blah yfrub bhp og? yuglt bhp yn’. uyunyhu
hep Shhp LAE qunkgh tenpus fonede puyg E[Ph pbufgh wal
foogh fppk. Guithacin ob." gdfiy inbgbe 0g uaphy fancy *.
he [FG plnp wup? onprus npuyhe Sfputipe diupitiony [Fargas nyf
mg qual Uahitoly © (VQby Seagh bbe php (Fugen npf,,
peyg faple melip ng by umgaemy beng yfunutife ayy
wsteybin Le suse:
Derbed bokp fod ops qdug Sp Saute op utihun. 'f ys”
poy’ fepdh. b bgfun qian aphu dh bh wub, bah slab
fr qusen Glog plus” vay AES geoph! Shp pfrybuy . — uub durgtn
SpSauh bEFE qpupfy gap ped wpuphp fp yecle pe
pepagt® +
Pprpbery geet’ np qaputs fraps nemby YE puhacp quyng 14
hgbgh — wgp ap fod? prow ng any” mgaunp SS gus.
thup ap fed ng uegibts neuad p™ Sunagkhe giu™ :
Neeend’ bgkp fd npaybe qopaquy[d np [Fughuy fuyp™ 15
peryefrita. gpm gion Wieyned Up he wb, gig bu yo™,
1 om wuf 3. Ven.
2 ag yoy» poe Bod quem secutus sum. wk shhp frud yun ldky
ug Geapkhhe pee Ven 92.
* Canon ita Nephud pou ayuy. |. [FE enbgh fapynpey ford;
eeyg [FG fn nn php. (I Yutrg.
4 faupk fuaey Ven 92: uae Bod. Apud MS. Canon dehinc
sequuutur Syriaco consona ita: fpphuh, ka uyuyka fopSkf [Fk
hegyhe umn fay k cepbekaghs ghee be: sayy pure einen h
inafFE pred ng. gufagieagy ply Ww:
° aye Ven et om bapa npg: mug ing 922 ayupu np npyke (sic)
Bod.
6 pony Bod 92. smphie 92,
8 peupd fit 99. 9 Jbe Bod. 10 thaplt Bod.
il a(a) peep Ven 99: uncup Bod. Corrige acund.
2 tap ag E on orn 92. gid Tg om Bod.
14 om pete. 99. 69 dat glug gpd fra.
232 [upuunp bk febtuuinne [Ff
ho mu yurgoftu ful wa aS. wu Cua ys ke uyy mp
fi phyuing & gbis be uk? uggkyng Suighy & sep
se aac ec ices Leese ey Ber aa Sa ca fa Le
inguin, —uub, [PL purnqylyng Sughlu ayy by wd
ugiygu jul mqolthg pag’:
16 ppb” asmgfie quyrey [FE pag qog fb ghghn
wuk LPG fr pang Yobunl Gar docpatiunl, gh dinghhr wgmgu
poy bh. pug?:
17 Slee bgkp fad npybe quyf np annus h gan
fignehy b. wub’ nggeste ply pha. gefuitiul? aul’ nggaiie
aye we fuliyy np quympuiuy ying fulag wpdubbing k boa
fitd unbuutely ghphou po sup he uphioupprcia®:
18 Nephew bgkp fod apayhu neti’, np bunku qabhb pe fey
qh gop —snkuy SJocp wph f fbpay top:
19 Meet bake fod npuybu gectty np talinan fr paepuy
ppnfie yop tual” Sinan’ ufuun Sudhy poyg hl plpnfio:
20 epbeG® annghy gupput’ ble fang qundnpustuin
puiti®, be Sundiupdul pbif” partis play yuypparctipu dinutiky
fol. 130 bywtelyty aning mph, LIPS kgbgfia mgp fol aul be
[FufF fl apdul[Ff? qundapulutr path ug [Fnghg”:
1 om. .pwg Ven.
2 fachmyp. sic Canon Bod Ven: Gaputtimd 92,
3 add & 2u4 Bod 92: Ven om, sed apud Canon sic: mugug guSk hk
ifupuce Sal alahdecareail =
4 apypbwl usque ad wppectan om 92, 5 unwhwtiwl Bod.
6 Canon Syriaco concors om guy hk. up. 7 ahs 92,
8 qua sprees ly sssts puts Ven 92, Canon: quadapuc[d frtg. Bod.
9 Sundiupdulh plip putt pkg Ven: eadem 92 Canon sed om push:
Surdiup dul Ey Li f Peq Bod.
10 pup ft Canon.
1 Post /Pghg Canon haec habet Syriaco consona: flpqbush* tu[d wi
quid pupa [Ffrou Judpkgh pla bk gor qoug be qparp wpe bbe
lofupuy 233
Nephed’ baby fit apyke med ap fonfdnfPlgue fr 2
Houpbfis h uingun. f ghob, euhkubuyg gin guyacin ub
migia susp t Eup Sh&buy be be sane aye efuiphe qlaraus :
Nepberh baby fod nypryk fayynepy ap byan. fp Suabhitey be 22
“a Loe vay pong units ungung gunlenattleyry' te anyday,
pf lp Gun Guy ko muy fympy, ble ng bye
qguyhes” b fbpay pul * fr gpl ubgbr bp eughuy fragque
Nezind qeeypy dangs yocumits infty ke uubey uni, 23
uype pe ght? he tn wukp® nd) prydy quate s
yegbarh qhengts fp perquitipute wput. hos uiohlay fr 24
dinpunit® fducayhpe aubjod, gouge f dbpeg pomghp & be
ples
Juunuby shou tanfduts ko wubp. Suyp fol fuphays,
tay Uhquitight, Ltn fFngae yapdud” dhgquy, aublee Sayp™
asp pha flag. feds te hw Dah phy, Seay
peypele lnk Sigh yuefrakat®, |e arab gin [Puts
ayuyku™ ;
Negead? bobp fod apyhe ayuliackipY ap poeobuy by
piqn qkungjs — ynptunl sprnegt: Sunatehp tou fp gb
uiyuithp. bybuy bp Sunny wa.'f fnphy ql, be aul
Suni [Faq qhu gugod wnlqen$u. gh djeu wd? plppy
pfkns Q\ppbul) fegbe marzbe oSgh ppg. pl Skqu ko Shpurtnpe
wanegh qpky Ge pre qiiaplfs pL unyuluiskgke fens faueuph :
Appt, vie h gpl eoke glye poe bl ape ps be qe qh kuti
AP Gapugueghe ple:
1 gusbeunsf{d bart Ven 99. : Ep] + pepe. Bod.
2 4 pl"| + quyng 92
5 guyfl) pa Ven: qa ps 92. f ] ge cay bt :
TL bE :
5 ght 92, Purepuu 92; dieputs Ven.
ere :
7 Lup Ven: «pz Bod. Et’ Ven: pq Bod.
9 Canon uy qf TT eal eal 1 om Ven.
il sspud auth Canon.
GG
L. A.
934 fupuump L fhe f[F ft
wpnnegue [ub wtp Suma dfiigh guyy wep sholp fia
uffunuiifi. ayy ng gprnastnugpe : _
Deghed? ad mnphgyg qhu qdunte utullga [Fe fuley, be
qeby Yopye fants wun phone (Fhuth pae [ned
wnth ifnfuuph’ poy fru he ploy pha: gh mgr auitin
Sug may be phputin phpts Yo tule bund nenbgun.
rufFute bo ayunnunkgen®, bo ku wubdl”:
fol. ie gepheh np paph nh pup quale he np yng
funpfanpusn dnp” apt: wtijuiify fp tuliu", unamph puipfin
fb poppe genptt fr sup. Boyudeyp funnupl gun. luphup? s
i ifufuuap ki Ven Q? . pron nent Bod. 2 ele Ven.
3 add ad" Siu pilfit bapur Bod.
4 fp tdi Ven 92: f funpfenpunn Bod. Sed Canon Syriaco consonans
ita: & ap thuph fs. pubtph srt Atari pe fepod jum.
: 92 add gpl gue. fubheapn he fupuinp be agensdire [d-fir fuftpopuy
fpttanuuue{d-f f [2 ft zy GE yrtyla unduny dt p-
AAA AAR
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16 SA wal toawa st wos tan don sum ales
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wars dus har ISA Her AN
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»Anshma Sis wiara wwlsl wR 10
50 dal etssan tad itis po cham anal, its
ys aa law wo whulaws xis anlha wml
secarna
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su ee. 53, ala pwtar ole mal ead De t<ts0 ala
ala acm witha. oo Sxiams choaitsamsn
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52 i\ =n wh archi nats whiss ZARA , Lo
a ArDAS — halos esr 2
1 Cod. om. ? Sic! sed scriptor emend. <dui: 1. <hia
medusa 3-73
Moray whim mhetaw’ . Matos KWAK ts 36
> ag
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| ih rad) tor
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: vA Ae ATI Araat saazh f\ jt> 39
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amar wchsasss whims KWKtaAl .am st> 40
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rilawe wa ..masnah ela erase Ine ot 41
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1.4
Pap. 54,
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1 Cod. gins l
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27 et\n AN Nie wh tan wis eetac> jis
Swasias vw etre’ hha due ws,
f.688 28 .camrtma* ,manamo ila’ Dams CAR 5tD
mbduris tak bam paca ealirto yswr K<iala
mad dul raina chduroa acs tala .,maiasa 5
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haw calsa .mmd op.iso taxa Nan .witanw’ an
| rejhs ,maatl wtors
29 eh asda etirva Law jt torch Ww) its
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30 rt rata’ 3A re zaaAss wea marsh el sto
>: (dass a enc
31 .teephh sais a Jao welsas ANsh rel
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— ENG f) a asia 3
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: evdrtssl “i Masha oo amis riod’ hie’ an 2
35 AMS Wh who ot warn wala jt>
> MI Aas
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la ANinwh wh chhies Ktaaxz thse jt 19
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rams. males Mm
10 rhdecn Woo ola wl sation Ae ID 99 Pap. 58,
tril por vera résaattai rion were al\h
itsins mls vias wera aha As\ ar’
pear lias orcull am sa Wis tana sto 23
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15 lo 1g _dwiar wisawa ssi Kiah vo sis 14
Ay Asx reheat whoa Moat waan inh
ae mi erzam duios jaca
pia glitan wid. we eins ezine ils a> 95 of Pap. 53,
reel daw wal mi dala [2%
20 teat ee N wl Sele — chbal ,t5 26
evasch el wyies haha rools
1 Sic Cod. : at lege Samanta
cs Tan wT
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ra tate oaks ham KjoIh=s waaoh lis
tothe wl ecisaks obese
9 .imase KtAK_ mS MAA asammai al zip
f. 67b ietlaw wiaX jan etre cheools ext
10 wha .dams Keno Ls nes IAurec 1
sla xtc RA ymadhzh
ll tN RSwatm pra .watwh wl uA» wa 51D
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12 .ahaar mashtha suas tat walhe sto 0
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Sen sAs
13 AANA oe TANIA wan “i rics dur sax 5t5
tale pinia wink rss tar’
14 whose) wtora .aauw law cides tots 5
sealar’ qiaals pimarca aati mlanwa .colar’
15 gms 2 wmatas Axa dis Naar 54
~
16 owl ela ew hn As mS » 2
: Marsal
17 mhkeaa>a Ara A ead wl ees mhals i= *
ie tsach ek
1 Cod. mmay 2 Cod. om.
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J phh cole
5 fir eiwta toh WN hr’ wana ba itd
. rena rel
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wlanwr hha’ K‘tvdha ats, math ed 545
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.
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mmm manala .Was. chinks hah were pasla
.. Marden
amas bund jana sale wera yin. ire vis
hus Iam wishm wt cles als A\ =o
1 The text here is conflate: for the MS. has <\n= als \\=>
tus am Sashes eam Klos ales Kush a4
2
7
82 cf. Pap. 54,
1.6
AA Por 7
1] pa dur’ valon rt pass mish cr Ay a dina
Salen Raw haa Ama .jaakw saa NI
12 sAxca pMAstweA ymaduc’ alos A tora
ws
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eadee tn alan s(Asatss Wa odo salon AGA ;t5
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TANNA «pK WAwtwo wWAo Jos Anis we
wa AMA .,MAIS sSthS MID jaa NAb’
rap 49, 14 .htsarva daX alsal tour’ Ran ese oasil
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TAS ,t2 duc AX pac nm aS. wimasa
sshd der ase’s otim ,tor adaall wx meat
lene als same sa oem _shrals npee
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Bal haam taw (aon Waa Seal a mialas
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Secale pica we Asal
1 Cod. wiruva 2 Cod. lsc et sic passim.
3 Cod. A 4 Cod. wis sis
® Cod. aalv< (sic). A comparison with the Cod. S, suggests that
some confusion existed in the archetype, which appears to have been
20
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vio A dahh ow ot worl! sane adtara ra
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ATGAAA .pD s1Adirw’ wl mMa\ AS rah jwrma
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AIS me BALA 4% Mod .kiaina eas
mare naa .Whtnawa Tam Mh .t> Mot TAG
Gawd ac oA ta to NRT Waar’ 73 alien
orémh as oslan edaath Issa csauan Ktam
a Gamal plalas »A atm ie p= echasahha
‘—! These two words omitted in Cod. and added by a later hand
on margin,
Pap. 50,
VE
f.66b 3
THE SYRIAC TEXT OF THE LEGEND OF AHIKAR
FROM A MS. IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
(Cod. Add. 2020 =S,)
dusarc’ idica dasha Kamliec cle bs sah
Dobe Lwl MEAD Kaa tous’) duh
aI tade’s als
todiees tals rarwtw to .aetwloey ptms duro
missy tA oad KI daam do ara ;
Star ye am torched duam wi\, saa .talson
ram +X. dhsam ist K<thasna . can él
pec. peorl duisa .ham pri whe earcsals 1
Fase Wan* mm id wan wl cts0 is
honara saan mila whst ese walls oS date 10
pama ral Iehiasm culs hema iar mo
wi wiza ham ?xsan ot KWoleX aad ata
toauc’ pi wos ozisio sis picid in .dinay
pay wla ham .xvmli<\ alaa mala IS
Cod. «1-20 * Cod, asa
20
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lays mbox tush pd NAT tes «eT
Mia\ ms warts asamml asl .. castiho Wi
MiaK ms ctw whezml os ol isis
msa .watwoh Ch Sas wea sto .. law
taXi walbe fs... mawhh Kl Swat
MtadXd walhh la .. mhaacw mawhha casas
ris |rticos dor’ aS 2. odhaar’ easadh salsa ola
pina wal sta ANL0 WINTT LAN welts
etara cada» Jaw KishA t> to... i>
piace .wiAmo to miara .mlaw charowl\s >
wines Ana Wris Naar ,t5 .. calaw caaal
ral gash e\x ma jt>.. Are Azah wl
ew .Asass Ac dur eis ato. . daawh wl
mhals ,t>.. wetaa pani woalx ims Imh
rash <A mheinsa ome wamh MN wdtilss
sia rsardla wduasdaa Whirizld chdiecl ,t5
camisl, rwhduns miaaza Mba .ctohh tl colo
A SiS wo to 1. trim mmaa bla
hac’ cts OR Saas — ae als AoW sattc yan
7;>MA IR. 7 AAWo wi J~a-F.0 7 y-ir’
Caetera desunt..
1.11. Cod. ais sic 1.14. Nath 2
cra\ fasor’s Wouanh
2hamx we sto ml twa Misa Um
wx lah wi yirla wats hamh whisn
ema wmeaaha Wada CATATAQ ramh
Asa Sihwh waiw Asa Wr aLs jauato ch
3 meN haw wewx Aa sto 2. mathh wale;
4 5% .. ANd wi dar sasaznxn Naa stench
cL ctexn ama .tzh SA adhe Tor’
5 whasn ortho ry \ rl st5 .. madhwh
rasl om om alas maar A\~ “WEAaS
6 Wty was gto. wWhasem mi 2m mmada 0
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dares pala mi [Sha oes Lm wats
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pa haem mam chlor pos Lim .pash
Mom owe -O0 wows trhho wha Fo
9 ram isha et cles ale sts .. vbho
M5 Ww Rada hs th ctw inhi %
9» ace Stonh <asoh lows ala iam
1.3. The first letter is not legible. In the same line Cod. has
ash ex errore.
15. Cod. sasahh Il. 9,10. Cod. asses
115. Cod. <asdhfa]?
A FRAGMENT OF THE SYRIAC TEXT OF THE
LEGEND OF AHIKAR
(from Mus. Britt. Add. 7200=8,)
| aca. J to | ream [ tae | Rca ta, 4! a &
eis zi wo rtam baw Wea Qm Widana wn
Wom i ino was whe oh huso ..) hams
cae chix »\ duis petecd paca SN 420 =)
5 etm sacs otra hinia od Dt 0.55
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“i 42% [ . jaca As $2 a1 co wl wWwItD “
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aw hams crm dsm ss tam .mhaalal
haan tw <iama .. cw i) cama nhw to
whasthl wha .c oa ot5 rel ASQ. sax oi
tee eden iso mor ical tear ,ama
15 to re, mhastal tars ,tz ay wy. -T.)
1.1. The transcription follows the MS. line for line.
1.2. The word phe is not perfectly clear.
L4. Cod. thin
1.14. Cod. wal «issxt= which appears to be a corruption of
the above.
roamed i
Fol, li4r
re ema Wl eae |
rv
NOTE TO THE ARABIC TEXT.
J HAVE copied the story of Haigar and Nadan at Dr Rendel
Harris’ request from the Karshuni ms. No. 2886 of the 8. P.C.K.
Collection in the Cambridge University Library. I have added a
few sentences from the text published by Father A. Salhani, S.J.,
of Beyrouth, in his “ Contes Arabes.” These are enclosed in square
brackets, and a few more have been added from a Karshuni
manuscript in the British Museum, Add. 7209 of the Rich
Collection, which are enclosed in round brackets.
In regard to Arabic grammar, I have not put in the vowel
points, from motives of economy, and because they are not in the
MS. The few instances of nunation which I have given are from
that source. Hamzas are there entirely overlooked, but I have
given a few where they seemed necessary to distinguish some
words from other similar ones.
In reading Karshuni one finds that the Arabic alphabet, being
more copious than the Syniac, one Syriac letter has sometimes to
do duty for two Arabic ones, or even for three. The following
table of values, as they exist in No, 2886, may therefore be found
useful,
Arabic
z é
[ol
bass)
=
-_
>
fm]
Ly
hh. e@ Sd et 3 Fb
&
nN
NOTE TO THE ARABIC TEXT. rt
Tt will easily be seen that some words give room for divergence
of opinion, for example »3& or _ plS, Sle or —JIS, YolS or
Jools. Ifin these and other instances I have ventured to differ
from Salhani, I trust it may be found that I am not wrong?
A few words and even sentences in the text of the MS, are
surrounded by a thin stroke. Another reading of these is in-
variably given in the margin, and this I have generally adopted,
as it is evidently a correction.
I have to thank my sister, Mrs Gibson, for helping me to
revise the proofs.
AGNES SMITH LEWIS.
1 The most remarkable instance of this is in Salhani’s book, page 10, line 5,
where for Saints lean hel! Golssls I have read (Ane SAS bleets
Vd chav.
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